Christmas Baking

We interrupt what is normally a tiny needle Tuesday for some baking news. This weekend I worked on Christmas Stollen. I put my raisins to soak on Friday night after work. Golden raisins went into cognac and regular raisins into orange juice. I used the cranberries and pineapple I had dried a few weeks ago (in addition to other dried fruits).

Since this is a yeast bread it had to rise twice. I ended up with quite a lot of dough. I split the dough into 4 equal (more or less) sections and baked 4 loaves.

We have already polished half of the first loaf. It is delicious in the evening with a cup of tea. I took one loaf to work to share. The other two might be wrapped and frozen to be enjoyed later. We also have sugar cookies and various other assorted Christmas delights to enjoy.

I do the traditional powdered sugar dusting on the top. When it was first ready we just cut off slices before I even had a chance to dust the bread.