This blog post so inspired me last December that I used many ideas to improve my mother's traditional yeast stollen recipe. First, I took a chance on using dried apricots, craisins, and dried cherries alongside the candied cherries and pineapple. After chopping the larger fruits up a bit I allowed them to marinade in a mixture of cherry juice and cherry brandy until the dried fruits had soaked it up a good bit. Let me say I'll never go back to the old way of simple candied fruit. Love the balance of flavors this brings instead of the sometimes over-sweet candied fruit alone! Next, I added the Fiori di Sicilia to my bread dough- WOW! In our family we lightly glaze our stollen, and I used a chocolate drizzling bottle to make pretty zigzags over the gorgeous golden loaves. I made 10 stollen in one day- my Christmas gifts to 9 co-workers and neighbors and one for my family to enjoy. ~ It was Heavenly! Thanks for the inspiration to improve an old family favorite!!! Wow, you're the Stollen Queen! Thanks for sharing your "tweaks" here... PJH

• Reply