Mini Stollen

We never bought stollen when I was a child, growing up or when I was a young adult.  I'm not sure I even knew what it was, maybe it was something only posh people were aware of and ate at Christmas time. I lived in a small market town and maybe it had yet to make its way to us. I can remember the first time I ever ate it, the slices came from M&S and were totally delicious, I love the soft icing sugar they are topped with.  I also remember buying stollen that weighed as much as a house brick.....

For the last few years I've made my own and whether you use a bread machine or a food mixer to make the dough, it's best to incorporate the cherries by hand otherwise the dough will be turn pink. I've always made one huge stollen but this time I used a different recipe and made mini ones.

Mini versions are fine but we missed our usual huge slab of cut stollen. They can be frozen but without the delicious melted butter and icing sugar topping.

I used a warming draw to rise the dough and a combination steam oven to refresh the stollen after defrosting at room temperature.  They only took 8 minutes to refresh and crisp up.  Combination steam ovens are a fabulous piece of kitchen kit and so versatile too.

The recipe is on the BBC Food website, they are easy to make and delicious, the dough has a lovely soft crumb but need lots more dried fruit, using the almonds didn't appeal so these were left out of the mix.