Paul Hollywood's Stollen recipe

Paul Hollywood's Stollen recipe is a Christmas baking classic filled with marzipan and all the flavours of Christmas. It's worth the extra effort of making it yourself, as the results are SO good. Share this with friends over mulled wine, or make some to give as a thoughtful Christmas gift or bring to your Christmas host. It could even be fun to bake with the kids in an afternoon that will really get you into the Christmas spirit. This recipe serves 6-8, so there will be plenty to go round if you have people round. Love festive baking? We've got loads more lovely Christmas recipes right here!

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter
• 250ml milk
• 60g fresh yeast
• 500g strong white flour
• 100g caster sugar
• pinch ground nutmeg
• pinch ground cloves

½ tsp vanilla extract

• 2 drops of almond extract
• 55g blanched almonds, finely chopped
• 200g raisins
• 100g currants
• 125g orange and lemon peel, chopped
• 225g marzipan
• 25g butter, melted
• 2tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Melt the butter over a gentle heat and set aside to cool.
2. Warm the milk and add the yeast. Stir until the yeast has dissolved.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, nutmeg, ground cloves, vanilla and almond extract. Stir in the melted butter and the milk and yeast mixture and knead well, until smooth and pliable.
4. Mix in the almonds, dried fruit and chopped peel. When everything has been fully incorporated, return to the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1-2 hours in a warm place, until doubled in bulk.
5. Knead the dough again and roll out to a rectangle on a floured surface.
6. Roll out the marzipan to a slightly smaller rectangle and place on top of the dough. Roll up to enclose the marzipan and transfer to a lined baking sheet. Leave to rise again for another hour.
7. Preheat the oven to 190C,gas 5 and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, brush with melted butter, and dust with icing sugar. Serve warm or cold.