Stollen Fruit & Nut Bread

If you'd like to bake a bread that's festive, rich and slightly sweet, then this Stollen bread would be an excellent choice. The best way to describe Stollen would be a mix between a bread and a cake - it's yeasty and bready, yet rich and slightly sweet. How can you go wrong? Slices of this bread are really nice for breakfast, or to serve with a cup of coffee as a treat.

Ingredients:

• 150 g butter
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup whiskey
• 40 almonds
• 1 1/2 cups dried apricots
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg, grated
• 630 g ap flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp instant dry yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs butter

Method:

Melt the butter and let cool. Pour the whiskey over the raisins in a small cup and let sit. Chop the almonds, chop the apricots. Wash the lemon and orange, dry and carefully cut off the rind, making sure you don't get any of the white part. Mince the rind (both orange and lemon) finely.  

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and yeast. Mix well, then add the yeast, the milk and the butter. Work the dough together. Add the apricots, raisins and whiskey, nutmeg, minced citrus peel and chopped almonds. Work together well with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula. Cover the dough and let rise for about two hours.

Scrape the dough onto a floured counter and knead through it. Split it into three parts, then make a loaf out of each piece of dough, place all of the loaves on a parchment covered sheet pan, cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rice for about 1 hour.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack. If you like, you can powder the loaves with powdered sugar once they've cooled.