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Christmas Cottage Cheese Stollen
Gathering for Christmas and thinking about what to give as a gift? Prepare a cottage cheese Christmas stollen as a treat. This is a traditional German pastry for Christmas. It is usually made from yeast dough, but try a yeast-free stollen made from cottage cheese dough. You will definitely like it. The pastry is easy to make and very tasty. It is prepared in advance and, when sealed, can be stored in a cool place for 3-4 weeks. Although after a day the pastry will settle a bit, and you can taste it. Unwrap the packaging, sprinkle the Christmas cottage cheese stollen with a fresh serving of powdered sugar. Cut and enjoy the delicious dessert.
Preparation time: 90 minutes.
Ingredients
Show ingredients
- cottage cheese - 250 g;
- butter - 200 g;
- sugar - 150 g;
- eggs - 2 pcs;
- nuts - 100 g;
- dried fruits - 300 g;
- cognac/brandy/rum - 100 g;
- lemon - 1 pc;
- flour - 500 g;
- baking powder - 18 g;
- salt - a pinch.
You will also need:
- butter - 50 g;
- powdered sugar - 100 g.
Preparation
- Place the ingredients on the table in advance so they can warm up to room temperature. The cottage cheese should be smooth, not grainy.
- For the stollen, you will need 300 grams of any dried fruits. In my case, it is 100 grams of prunes, 100 grams of raisins, and 100 grams of fruit candied peel.
- Place the dried fruits in a bowl and pour 100 grams of alcohol over them. Put the bowl with the soaked dried fruits in the microwave for 2-3 minutes until boiling. Take it out and let the mixture cool, stirring a couple of times during this time.
- Mix the flour with the salt, baking powder, and sift it all together.
- Grate the zest from the lemon using a fine grater. Then squeeze the juice from the lemon and mix it with the zest.
- Mix the softened butter with the sugar, then beat this mixture with a mixer until it becomes a soft fluffy cream.
- Add the eggs (not cold!) and beat.
- Add the cottage cheese and continue to beat so that the cottage cheese is evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
- Add the lemon mixture and beat the cottage cheese mixture until uniform.
- Now add the flour mixture into the cottage cheese mixture and mix.
- Do not mix by hand so that the butter does not start to melt in the mixture. Do this with a spoon.
- Transfer the dough from the bowl onto a floured table. Flatten the dough and place the soaked dried fruits along with the liquid in the middle of the flattened piece.
- Quickly mix it, bringing all the dough together into a ball. The dough will be slightly sticky, so sprinkle it with flour on all sides for easy handling. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.
- Flatten the pieces into elongated sheets about 3 cm thick. Now, on each sheet, retreat approximately 1/3 along the length of the dough and use the edge of your palm to create a groove. Form the stollens: place the smaller part on top of the larger one. Round off the shapes and slightly lift them up. Since the stollens will spread during baking, shape them tall.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and carefully transfer the shapes onto it while maintaining some distance between them.
- Send the baking sheet to a preheated oven at +160-170 ⁰C for 60-70 minutes. If the top browns too quickly, cover it with parchment. Check the readiness of the pastry with a wooden skewer.
- Once done, take them out of the oven and immediately brush each item on all sides with melted butter.
- Generously sprinkle powdered sugar on top until the butter no longer shows through the powdered layer. The pastry should be well sealed with powdered sugar. If you plan to store it for a long time, sprinkle powdered sugar not only on the top but also on the sides and bottom. Leave it to cool in that form.
- After that, wrap it in parchment paper, then in foil and a bag. Keep it for 3-4 weeks in a cool place.
- После чего заворачиваем в пергамент, затем в фольгу и пакет. В таким виде выдерживаем в течение 3-4 недель в прохладном месте.
- After standing, the stollen will compact and become even tastier. But you can try the pastry right away. It's incredibly delicious!
If you love giving sweet gifts, then the cottage cheese Christmas stollen is a great gift for the holiday!
