Page 24 - Real Rochdale Issue 16 Winter 2022

CHOCOLATE 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
• 1 egg
For the pastry: • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 300g strong bread flour • Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 teaspoons easy bake yeast. • 50g milk chocolate chips
Make sure it’s easy bake otherwise • 50g dark chocolate chips
it will need activating. Also make • 50g white chocolate chips
sure it’s well in date as the yeast has • 50g glace cherries (cut into
to work really hard in sweet bread. quarters)
• Pinch of salt • 175g marzipan
• 40g sugar
• 110g butter (nice and soft so For the glaze:
room temperature) • 110g icing sugar
• 100ml warm milk • 1 tablespoon lemon juice 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
Dough preparation: 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.
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. 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 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 sof- Warm the oven to 200°C/180°C(fan)/Gas 6. Bake the stollen for approx. 30 minutes, checking
ten the butter) and 1 egg. 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
Gently stir the milk mixture into the flour until it is combined then knead the dough for a good skewer should come out clean if inserted - watch out for chocolate or marzipan on the skewer, it
5 minutes (use a mixer with a dough hook if you have one, if not knead well by hand). can be misleading.

Add the chopped cherries and chocolate chips to the dough. If you can’t find (or dont’ want) all The glaze:
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 Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice then drizzle this over the surface of the warm stollen.
over and knead gently.
Stollen is traditionally served cold but it’s amazing pretty much straight out of the oven! It’s lovely
Place the dough in a large, greased bowl and cover with cling film (also greased) and a tea towel. on its own or with cream if you are eating it warm.
Leave the dough in a warm place until it doubles in size. This can take two hours or more.
However you choose to serve it, chocolate chip stollen is so delicious… I hope you enjoy it.