Stollen

2 cups finely ground whole wheat bread flour

1 cups white bread flour

1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup small curd cottage cheese

5/6 cup hot water

1/4 cup honey

2 Tbs rum

1 egg

¼ cup butter

grated peel of 1 lemon, about 1 tablespoon

grated peel of 1 orange, about 2 tablespoons

1 cup raisins

1 cup other dried fruits (include a good amount of apricot plus pineapple, dried cherries, and dried cranberries, or anything else you’d like)

1/2 cup toasted almonds, chopped coarsely

butter cream frosting

This recipe makes one medium sized stollen.

Chop all the fruit so it is the size of raisins. Soak the dried fruit in rum and other complementary spirits overnight before you proceed.) Drain the fruit, reserving the leftover rum and adding to it to return to 2 Tablespoons for the dough.

Stir the flours, the yeast, and the salt together. Mix the cottage cheese, hot water, honey, and rum together well, then add the eggs. Add to flour mixture. Mix the dough and knead about 10 minutes, then work in the butter. Stop kneading when the butter is all incorporated; you will be working the dough more when you add the fruits and nuts.

Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place. Deflate it after an hour and a half or more, when your wet finger makes a hole in the center of the dough that does not fill in. Return the dough to its warm place to rise again.

Meantime, toast your almonds for 5 to 7 minutes in a 350° oven. If you want to intensify the flavor, sprinkle a tablespoon of almond extract over the nuts after they are toasted. Mix your drained fruits together with the peel and the nuts.

Work the fruit into the dough on a large surface in a place you can protect from drafts. Flour the surface and turn the twice risen dough onto it. Press the dough flat, and then with a rolling pin very gently roll it as large as it will tolerate without tearing. Don't be rough.

Cover the dough and let it rest about 10 minutes. Mix the fruits and nuts together and turn onto the dough. Roll or fold them together and in a leisurely way knead in the goodies so that the dough incorporates them uniformly. Be careful, because the fruit and especially the nuts will tear the dough. Round the dough and let it rest again, covered, for at least 15 minutes. The dough will rise amazingly considering all it has been through.

To shape, press or roll the round into a long oval. Then fold it over lengthwise, not quite in half. Place the shaped stollen on parchment covered cookie sheets and let it rise again in a humid, warm place until the dough slowly returns a gently made finger-print.

Bake in a preheated oven (325°F) for about an hour. Allow plenty of time for cooking, since the fruit holds moisture, but watch closely so that it does not over bake. When completely cool, frost with buttercream frosting.

Note: Regarding the baking, try to use heavy cookie sheets, and keep the bread away from the bottom of the oven if yours tends to overheat there, as most do. It helps to put a second cookie sheet under the first one, especially on the bottom rack. Turn and reverse the loaves halfway through if they are not baking evenly.