Quick Stollen Kisses

Utterly inauthentic, unbelievably delicious.

This is a quick dough version of one of my favourite festive bakes, Stollen. Here you get all the unctuous almondy loveliness of the original but with absolutely nothing to prove. This is a bake entirely at ease with itself!

INGREDIENTS:

Quick dough:

DRY:

150g plain flour

150g strong bread flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

75g raisins chopped

90g glacé cherries chopped small

WET:

240g full fat dairy / plant based yogurt

60g sunflower oil - or any flavourless oil

Zest of 1/2 an orange

2 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:

125g Marzipan

100g salted butter

50g walnuts crushed or chopped

HOW TO:

• Make the filling by grating the marzipan into the soft butter and then adding the crushed or chopped walnuts. Mix everything together to make a spreadable paste.

• Mix the wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.

• Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl then add the cherries. Coat the cherries in the flour, breaking them up so they are evenly distributed throughout.

• Add the raisins and mix together.

• Pour the wet onto the dry and mix together with a table knife until the dough has formed rough clumps. Pull everything together into a ball with your hands.

• Flour a large sheet of baking paper and pat the dough into a vague oblong on it. Roll the dough to 20cm wide by 40cm long.

• Spread the filling over the dough.

• Cut the dough across the middle so you have two 20cm x 20cm squares of dough.

• Take bottom edge of the paper and use it fold 1/3 of the dough over onto itself, then fold it again so you have 3 layers of dough. Do the same with the other half of the dough.

• Cut each roll into 4 so you have 8 buns, leave them on the paper and lift into a 28 x 18 cm baking tin.

• Use a pair of scissors to snip an ‘x’ on the top of each bun, cutting through the top layer of dough to allow the heat to penetrate in the oven.

• Bake in the middle of the oven at 175ºc for 25 minutes.

• Leave the buns to cool for at least 10 to 15 minutes and then dust with icing sugar.

• You can eat them when warm but I think they’re best at room temperature. They are also excellent the next day if you can restrain yourself for that long!

Tat x