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5 from 1 vote

German quark stollen with prunes

This version of Germany's Christmas cake/bread is wonderfully aromatic, tasty and easy to make.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Total Time1 hour 20 minutes
Course: Snack
Cuisine: German
Servings: 10 + approx
Calories: 252kcal
Author: Caroline
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Ingredients

For the marzipan

  • ½ cup almond flour ground almonds
  • ½ cup confectioners sugar icing sugar
  • 1 tablespoon egg white 1 tablespoon is approximately ½ of one egg white

For the stollen

  • 2 ¾ oz prunes (dried plums), pitted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 pinch ground saffron
  • 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour plain flour
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ cup sugar (or less, see notes)
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom I tend to crack open a few pods and grind the seeds in pestle and mortar
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 lemon zest
  • 8 oz quark or replace with ricotta with a little sour cream (approx 9:1 ratio)
  • 2 oz unsalted butter just melted so liquid but not hot
  • ½ tablespoon milk
  • ¼ cup chopped walnuts

To top/for dusting

  • 1 tablespoon butter approximately
  • 1 tablespoon confectioners sugar approximately

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 300F/150C and line a good-sized baking sheet.
  • If including marzipan, mix together the almond meal, confectioners sugar and egg white and bring it together in a ball. Knead slightly and form into a short log, around 1in/2.5cm thick.
  • For the stollen itself, first chop the prunes/dried plums into small pieces, each prune into roughly 4-6 pieces.
  • Lightly whisk the egg and saffron together in a small bowl.
  • In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, cardamom, nutmeg and lemon zest. Watch with the lemon zest in particular that it is well distributed as it can clump together.
  • Add the egg mixture, quark, butter, milk, walnuts and chopped dried plums. Then mix until well combined but try not to overmix.
  • Next, lightly flour a work surface and turn the mixture out. Flatten it out into a circle around 1in/2.5cm thick. Lay the marzipan log in the middle, if using, and fold one side over the top. If not using marzipan, still fold the dough over to the other side, stopping a bit short of the edge. Gently use the back of your fingers to seal the top and bottom layers - it should end up slightly domed rather than very thick to the edge.
  • Place on a lined baking sheet with plenty of room for it to spread and bake for 60-70 min until gently golden around the outside and a skewer comes out clean. If you have used marzipan, then don't test in the middle but a bit to the side as the marzipan will probably make it tricky to tell.
  • Allow to cool on a baking rack.
  • Once cool, brush the outside with melted butter to give it a light coating then sprinkle with confectioners sugar by rubbing it through a sieve to ensure nice and fine. Serve in slices.

Video

Notes

My original German recipe includes sugar in the stollen dough but I have also made this without sugar, just relying on the sweetness from the marzipan and dusting on top and it was still delicious. Sweeten up to your taste, I'd say no more than as written but none or part of this will also work (more will make it more cake-like than stollen should be). 

Nutrition

Calories: 252kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 30mg | Potassium: 200mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 260IU | Vitamin C: 0.7mg | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 1.5mg
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