Quark Stollen

This time I made both fruit cake & stollen for this new year. I soaked the fruits in the rum for one week. Little different from regular stollen, as I used quark in this preparation. It taste delicious.

When the stollen has cooled down completely on the cake rack, wrap it first in aluminium foil, then a plastic bag, for instance, a freezer bag. If stored in a cool and dry place, the stollen will remain fresh for up to 4 weeks and the aromas of the fruit and spices will develop fully. Perfect for parties.

Ingredients :

1. Rum - 100 ml
2. Raisins - 1 1/2 cup
3. All purpose flour - 500 gms
4. Baking powder - 1 sachet
5. Sugar - 1 cup
6. Vanilla sugar - 1 sachet
7. A pinch of salt
8. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
9. 1 pinch each cloves, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon powder
10. Grated orange zest - 1 tsp
11. Eggs - 2 no
12. Butter - 200 gms
13. Low fat quark - 250 gms
14. Ground almonds - 250 gms
15. Candied lemon peel & orange peel - 1/2 cup

For coating & sprinkling :

1. 100 gms butter
2. Icing sugar - 50 gms

Method :

1. For the dough, pour rum over the raisins and leave to soak overnight ( I soaked it for 1 week).

2. Line the baking sheet with baking parchment. Preheat the oven about 250 C.

3. For the dough, mix the flour and baking powder together. Add the other ingredients for the dough (except for the almonds, candied lemon peel and candied orange peel) and knead everything.

4. Then knead the almonds, candied lemon peel, candied orange peel and soaked raisins into the dough on the lightly floured work surface until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

5. Roll out the dough to make a square. Roll up the dough, starting from the long side, then with the rolling pin make a depression lengthways. Now fold the left side over the right side but slightly offset. Again using your hands, make a bulge lengthways along the middle.

6. Place the stollen on the baking sheet and put this in the bottom third of the preheated oven. Bake the quark stollen for about 55 mins.

7. Melt the butter in a small pan. Brush the stollen with half the melted butter immediately after you have taken it out of the oven and sprinkle half the icing sugar on top. Put the stollen on a cake rack to cool a little. Then repeat the same with the remaining butter and icing sugar.

Serve with tea.

Source: Cooking With Swapna