Winter 2022Chocolate chip stollen

by Natasha Brown - owner of Brown’s Cakes

Traditional stollen is good but I think this chocolate chip stollen is even better! There is a bit of preparation/waiting time needed for this recipe but don’t worry as it will all be worth it in the end. You’ll need to spend some time kneading and weighing but most of the time will be spent simply waiting for the dough to rise.

A warm room helps so choose a day when you have the heating on (I know those days are rare now with the price of fuel!) or place your dough near’ish’ a heater - you don’t want the chocolate chips to melt! I’ve got to say though, the biggest tip is to use recently bought yeast because old yeast, even if still in date, won’t work effectively.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 300g strong bread flour
•  2 teaspoons easy bake yeast. Make sure it’s easy bake otherwise it will need activating. Also make sure it’s well in date as the yeast has to work really hard in sweet bread.
• Pinch of salt
• 40g sugar
• 110g butter (nice and soft so room temperature)
• 100ml warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 50g milk chocolate chips
• 50g dark chocolate chips
• 50g white chocolate chips
• 50g glace cherries (cut into quarters)
• 175g marzipan

For the glaze:

• 110g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Dough preparation:

Place the flour in a bowl, add a pinch of salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast in the other side so they don’t go in together.

Warm the milk (I give it 30-45 seconds in the microwave, it needs to be warm but not hot) and stir in the sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, warm butter (again a short blast in the microwave can soften the butter) and 1 egg.

Gently stir the milk mixture into the flour until it is combined then knead the dough for a good 5 minutes (use a mixer with a dough hook if you have one, if not knead well by hand).

Add the chopped cherries and chocolate chips to the dough. If you can’t find (or dont’ want) all three types of chocolate chips use more of the other types to make up 150g in total. It’s not easy to keep the chips in so put them in the middle and keep bringing the outside of the dough over and knead gently.

Place the dough in a large, greased bowl and cover with cling film (also greased) and a tea towel. Leave the dough in a warm place until it doubles in size. This can take two hours or more.

Once the dough has doubled in size, tip it on to a floured worktop and gently knead the air out. Shape it into an oval, roll the marzipan into a sausage shape slightly shorter than the dough and place it in the middle of the dough. Dab a little milk on to one long edge of the dough then carefully fold the dough round the marzipan so that the milk sticks the dough together. Lay the dough (join side down) on to a lined baking tin.

Cover lightly with greased cling film then leave to double in size again. This should take around one hour in a warm place.

Warm the oven to 200°C/180°C(fan)/Gas 6. Bake the stollen for approx. 30 minutes, checking after 25 minutes to make sure it’s not burning. It’s tricky to tell when it’s done as you can’t pick it up easily like a bread loaf due to the weight of the marzipan but it should have a nice crust and a skewer should come out clean if inserted - watch out for chocolate or marzipan on the skewer, it can be misleading.

The glaze:

Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice then drizzle this over the surface of the warm stollen.

Stollen is traditionally served cold but it’s amazing pretty much straight out of the oven! It’s lovely on its own or with cream if you are eating it warm.

However you choose to serve it, chocolate chip stollen is so delicious… I hope you enjoy it.