The Making of Croisserie Signature Christmas Stollen

01 The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade. Koma Stollenform, imported from Japan, to bake an uniform and distinctive stollen shape.

02 Stollen made the old-fashioned way with a nice mix of fruits (and nuts). The first preparation started with washing and steaming the dried raisins and cranberries, stir in candied orange peel and candied lemon peel, then let macerate overnight.

03 Nothing says Christmas like stollen with marzipan. And we make our own marzipan with only toasted ground almonds, milk and sugar.

04 All we knead is love. The method of preparing the dough determines the hydration, texture, aging and flavour. This year, our Christmas stollen is a variation of the Germany quarkstollen recipe.

We have substituted the quark with yogurt for flavour and moistness. Chef Yogi who helmed Flour, an authentic Northern Indian restaurant, has been very generous to give us two boxes of their homemade yogurt.

Milk, honey, yeast & yogurt in the fermented sponge dough.
Butter, marzipan, real vanilla beans, Christmas spices, lemon zests & lemon juice in the main dough.

05 In Germany, the recipe and ratio of ingredients for stollen is considered an important matter of tradition. A fun mix of textures and colours. Part bread part cake, rich and dense; colorfully studded with fruits and nuts. Bursting with sweetness from the fruits with a nice hint of citrus and the occasional crunch of nuttiness.

Our Christmas stollen are as well loaded with fruits, nuts and nostalgia. 160% mixed fruits raisins, cranberries, candied orange peel & candied lemon peel. 23% mixed nuts almonds, walnuts & cashew nuts.

06 The traditional shaping of stollen into oval form, with central vein of marzipan, resembling a swaddled baby Jesus.

07 Bien cuit by sight. Burnished, caramelised crusts. Stollen fresh out from oven. But it’s nowhere near done yet!

08 The baptism of still-hot stollen in a luxury bath of clarified butter. Each stollen will be dipped in clarified butter, twisting and turning it continuously to allow the clarified butter saturate the stollen. Repeat until approximately 100g of clarified butter is absorbed into the stollen. This will give the stollen a glistening crust and, more importantly, introduces more moisture, and flavour into the stollen.

The selection of butter in making the clarified butter is hence a very important decision to make. And we use only the French butter, made from cultured cream with at least 82% fat, which upon reducing gives it a pleasant nutty aroma and taste (the beurre noisette).

09 Dressing up the stollen with a first coat of powdered sugar, resembling the white swaddling clothes Baby Jesus was wrapped in, in the city blanketed by newly fallen snow.

Our powdered sugar is made up of 50% Trehalose natural sugar which is less sweet. This sugar coat will soak up any excess butter, sealing the stollen to retain moisture, making it less sticky on the outside to eat with your hands, and adding another hint of richness to that first bite!

The stollen’s then wrapped in baking sheet and another layer of aluminium foil to allow aging at 18°C for a month. Then a second powdered sugar coat. After that, the stollen is ready to eat, or wrapped as gifts.

10 Croisserie Signature Christmas Stollen 2018. Limited quantity available! Order yours now!