Two traditional treats to ring in the Christmas festivities.

Dresden Stollen Bread

Recipes by Atmosphere Hotels and Resorts

Ingredients

• 115 gm golden raisins
• 75 gm diced candied orange peel
• 75 gm diced candied citron
• 225 gm slivered almonds
• 220 gm dark rum
• 45 ml unsalted butter, room temperature
• 340 gm ground cardamom
• ½ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp orange zest
• 155 gm granulated sugar
• 375 ml milk, warmed to roughly body temp
• 28 gm yeast
• 750 gm all purpose flour
• 1½ salt

For the sugar coating

• 50 gm light brown sugar
• 120 gm powdered sugar
• 110 gm butter

Method

• In a medium sized bowl, combine the raisins, candied fruit, almonds and rum. Toss to combine and set aside, covered, for at least 12 hours.
• Add the yeast, milk, butter, sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, grated orange zest and 2½ cups of flour to the bowl of a stand mixer that's fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until everything comes together in a smooth batter for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the mixer, cover the bowl loosely with a towel, and let stand for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes is up, switch the paddle attachment to the dough hook, add the salt and enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 8-10 minutes on a low speed, until the dough is smooth, elastic, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, adding more flour by the tbsp if needed.
• Place dough in a large greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm draft-free place until double for about 90 minutes. Punch down the dough.
  At this point, you choose any of two ways: The easy, fast way that results in some burned fruit/nuts poking out of the stollen's crust. For the easy way, knead the fruit, nuts, and whatever rum is left in the bowl into the punched-down dough, and shape it into three oval loaves. You can skip the next step.
• For the tough step, divide the dough into two portions: fruit and plain, then cover the fruit portion with the plain. To start, set aside 1/3 of your punched down dough. Add the fruits, nuts, and any remaining rum in the fruit bowl to the remaining 2/3 of the dough and knead to combine. Divide the fruited dough into 3 equal pieces and shape them into ovals. Divide the plain dough into three equal pieces and roll each one into a thin sheet large enough to completely cover the fruited loaf. Drape the dough sheets over the fruit center, then flip the loaf and cover the bottoms, pinching the seams of the plain dough closed. Flip the loaves right-side up again and firmly shape them into their final oval forms. Set the shaped loaves on a parchment lined sheet pan and drape them with plastic or a damp towel to keep them from drying out as they rise.
• When the loaves are nearly risen, preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Bake the loaves for 1½ - 2 hrs until golden brown and baked through. Keep an eye on them. If at the 1 hour mark, they are already well-browned, turn the oven down 25 degrees.
• Cool the stollen on a rack. As they're cooling, prepare the sugar topping.
• Set up your stollen-topping station by lining a large sheet pan with a sheet of parchment and setting a cooling rack inside the sheet pan -- this keeps the mess to a minimum. Carefully move the stollen to the topping station. Mix the brown sugar and confectioner's sugar until thoroughly combined. Melt the butter and brush the stollens generously with it. The stollens should still be a bit warm when you do this. Use a sieve to sift the sugars in a generous coating all over the buttered stollen.

Panettone

Ingredients

• 150 gm raisins
• 30 ml light rum
• 30 ml hot water
• 465 gm all-purpose flour
• 133 gm granulated sugar
• ½tsp active dry yeast 
• ½ tsp salt 
• ¼ tsp lemon zest 
• ½ vanilla bean (split in half lengthwise)
• 3 stick eggs (at room temperature)
• 158 ml tepid water 
• 15 ml honey
• 145 gm unsalted butter
• 14 gm unsalted butter, melted
• 14 gm unsalted butter, chilled
• 150 gm candied citron

Method

• In a small bowl, combine the raisins with the rum and 2 tbsp of hot water. Allow to soak at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until the raisins are plump and most of the liquid has been absorbed, at least 8 hours or overnight.
• In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, lemon zest and vanilla bean on low speed until combined. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, tepid water and honey. With the mixer on low speed, pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Increase the speed to medium-low and mix until all the ingredients are combined. Add the softened butter, 1 tbsp at a time, mixing until incorporated before adding more. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is smooth and elastic, for about 8 mins.
• Drain the raisins, discard the soaking liquid, and stir together with the candied citron and 1 tbsp of melted butter. Stir this mixture into the dough with a wooden spoon.
• Place the dough in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a cold oven with the door closed until it has nearly tripled in volume, 12 to 15 hours.
• Locate and discard the vanilla bean, then sprinkle the dough lightly with flour and scrape out onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle a bit more flour onto the dough, then fold the edges of the dough in towards the center, forming a loose ball, and place, seam-side down, into the panettone mold. Cover with a damp kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until the dough is just above the top of the mould, 3 to 5 hours.
• Preheat oven to 370 degrees F. Place the dough-filled panettone mold on a baking sheet. Place the 1 tbsp chilled butter in the center of the X and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out slightly moist but not wet, 60 to 75 minutes (the panettone will be very dark).
• Remove from the oven and pierce 12-inch metal or wooden skewers all the way through the panettone (including the paper) 4 inches apart and 1 inch from the bottom so the skewers are parallel. Hang the panettone upside down over a large stockpot and cool completely before cutting. To store the panettone, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then either place in a resealable plastic bag, or wrap again in foil. The bread will keep at room temperature for up to 1 week.