Stollen Bites

Stollen bites have all the flavors of a classic German Christmas Stollen, with dried fruit, nuts, a touch of rum and rolled in powdered sugar, but in individual cookie form!

What is Stollen?

Stollen is a yeasted sweet bread that is usually studded with dried fruits and nuts and then finished with butter and powdered sugar. It is something that most families in Germany make around Christmas and each one has their own recipe. These are based on the recipe my Oma passed on to me for our classic family stollen.

Can I swap out the dried fruit?

Yes! You can use any combo of dried fruits that you want. I recommend adding the same total weight of add-ins into the dough as listed in the recipe but it could be any fruit you want!

Can these be made in advance?

Yes, definitely! These taste better as they sit because the flavors have time to develop – if you plan to gift them, just re-roll them in powdered sugar right before gifting or sending them.

You may also like…

• Linzer Plätzchen
• Spritzgebäck | German Spritz Cookies
• Lebkuchen Cookies

Tips for making Stollen Balls

1. When making yeasted dough, ensure that you allow your mixer to fully knead the dough. The dough should be smooth and the sides of the bowl, clean.
2. Any add-ins in the form of dried fruit or nuts should be chopped up so that nothing is larger than the size of a raisin. If the pieces are too large, they will fall out while shaping the cookies.
3. The dried fruits are soaked in rum to rehydrate so that they aren’t hard inside of the stollen balls. However, they can also be soaked in warm water with a splash of vanilla.
4. When shaping the stollen balls, if any add ins fall out, just tuck them back into the ball at the bottom. If any fruit is sticking out from the dough once shaped, try to press it back in so that it doesn’t burn.
5. Be sure to roll the cookies in butter and powdered sugar while they are still warm, it creates a thick icing type of texture and helps it stick to the cookies.
6. If the powdered sugar you are rolling the cookies in, gets too many clumps of butter, pass it through a sieve and start rolling again.

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour: Any all purpose flour will work for these Stollen Balls! I have not yet tried any other flours with this recipe.
• Sugar: This recipe uses granulated sugar in the dough and powdered sugar for the coating.
• Yeast: In this recipe, instant yeast is used. However, if you are using active dry yeast, bloom it in the warm milk before adding it to the dry ingredients.
• Milk: The stollen balls use milk as the liquid in the dough; however, they will also work with non-dairy milks such as almond or light coconut milk. You can use either dairy or non dairy milk for cooking the dumplings as well.
• Butter: The butter adds moisture to the dough and the baked stollen balls are rolled in melted butter before rolling them in powdered sugar!
• Eggs: I use standard large eggs from the store. There is one whole egg in the dough.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract adds flavor to the dough.
• Lemon zest: Lemon zest is very common in German yeasted doughs and adds a little brightness to balance out the sweetness.

Add-Ins:

• Candied Orange and Lemon Peel: Be sure to use candied not dried orange and lemon peel. If you can’t find it already chopped, then just cut the peel pieces smaller into 1/4″ chunks
• Raisins, dried Tart Cherries, dried cranberries: Any combination of these three will work, for the cherries I recommend giving them a rough chop before adding them in because they are a little bigger. You can also add golden raisins, or chopped dried apricots.
• Pecans: There is usually some type of nut in stollen. I have used chopped pecans but you could also use hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts.
• Rum: Rum is used to soak the dried fruit to help rehydrate them so they don’t dry out even more when being baked.

How to make Stollen Bites

Prepare the Add-ins

• In a medium bowl, combine all the chopped dried fruit, candied peel, and nuts. Then pour in the rum and stir together.
• Cover the bowl and set aside.

Make the dough

• In the bowl of a stand mixer add in the flour, sugar, and yeast, then whisk to combine.
• Pour in the milk, butter, egg, vanilla, and lemon zest. Use the dough hook attachment to knead the dough on medium low speed until smooth and it no longer sticks when poked.
• Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl (can be the same mixing bowl). Cover the bowl with a damp towel or plastic wrap and place somewhere warm to rise for an 30-45 minutes until doubled in size.
• Once doubled in size, pour the add ins into the mixing bowl with the dough and need to combine.
• Cover the dough again and set aside for 15 minutes.

Shape the Stollen Cookies

• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
• Once rested, remove the dough from the bowl and divide into 22 uniform pieces.
• To shape, work with one portion of dough at a time.
• Pat it into a disk that is about 4″ in diameter. Work in a clockwise direction bringing the outside edge of the disk into the center.
• If needed pinch the seam in the center together to seal it closed.
• Place the dough ball seam side down on your work surface. Shape your hand into a claw over the ball with only your finger tips and the heal of your hand touching the counter.
• Roll the dough ball in a clockwise direction, keeping the seam side down, until the seam on the bottom has disappeared.
• Place the shaped bites onto the lined baking sheets. Leave at least 2″ between each ball as they will grow substantially.
• Cover both baking sheets with a towel or plastic and set somewhere warm for 30 minutes or until they have visibly grown.
• Preheat the oven to 300 F and arrange two racks so that they divide the oven into thirds.

Bake the Stollen Balls

• Once they have rested for 30 minutes, bake the stollen bites in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top.
• Rotate and swap the baking sheets after 15 minutes to ensure even baking and browning.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and place on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes before rolling them in butter and powdered sugar.
• After the 10 minutes have passed, roll each cookie in melted butter and then in a bowl of powdered sugar.
• Once all of the cookies have been rolled, roll them again just in the powdered sugar and leave on a wire rack to cool.

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