Christmas Stollen (No Yeast)

I tried Stollen for the first time while living in Germany. In Canada, I always thought they were a bit steep to purchase for my pocket so I started baking my own Stollen. Differ household often has differ recipe, tricks and tips, but common Stollen is using yeast.

This next Stollen is without yeast; pretty easy to make, yet as good IMO, so it is always my go to recipe :)

They are good at room temperature for a couple of weeks. You can serve them for Christmas brunch, dessert, to gifted away to family and friends.

Happy Christmas!

Chop dried apricot, raisin, and dried cranberries, enough to fill a one-cup size measurement cup - you can use any dry fruits you like

1/3 c chopped walnut, toasted (preheat oven 350 F, toast walnut for 5-10 mins, cool completely) - you can use slivered almonds if you like almond better, or a mix is fine

Preheat oven 325 F and grease your baking sheet

Mix together in a bowl:

2 1/4 c flour

1/2 c sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon powder

crushed of 3 pods of green cardamom

Then with a fork, cut and mix in:

1/2 c margarine/butter (if using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt to the mixture)

Mixture will be uneven crumbs

Then mix in the dried fruits.

In another bowl, beat until smooth

1 c cottage cheese

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp lemon oil

Then mix cottage cheese mixture into flour mixture, knead

Divide into two dough and shape into a log, place logs on baking sheet

Bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean

Transfer to cooling rack and brush top with 6 tbsp butter, melted

Then sprinkle generously with icing sugar

Let stollen cool to room temperature on the cooling rack, then brush again with more melted butter and cover generously with icing sugar

Wrap tightly with cling wrap and decorate with ribbon.