MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06 Title: Christmas Stollen With Almonds & Marzipan Categories: Cakes, Christmas, German Yield: 1 Cake 100 g Mixed dried fruit; with peel 180 ml Apple juice 7 g Dried yeast 250 g Plain flour; plus a little -extra for dusting 30 g Blanched whole almonds 1 pn Ground cinnamon; generous 1 pn Ground anise or allspice; -generous 1 pn Ground cloves; scant 75 g Marzipan; cold, cut into -small pieces 10 g Butter; melted 1 tb Icing sugar Soak the dried fruit in 100 ml of hot water. Gently warm the apple juice for a few minutes in a pan, then add the yeast and leave to activate for 10-15 minutes (it will start to bubble). Put the flour in a bowl. Stir in the yeast and apple juice mixture to form a smooth dough, then cover and leave to prove somewhere warm until roughly doubled in size, about 1-2 hours. You can also put the dough in the fridge to rise slowly overnight. Drain the fruit and add to the dough along with the nuts, spices and marzipan. Squish everything together, then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until the fruit stays in the dough. Shape the dough into a sausage shape and put it on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove somewhere warm for 30 minutes to 1 hour until it has risen by about a quarter. Heat oven to 180 C/160 C fan/gas 4. Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then reduce oven to 150 C/130 C fan/gas 2 and bake for 25-30 minutes more until golden brown and firm to the touch. Remove the stollen from the oven and brush all over with the melted butter. Dust with the icing sugar and leave to cool completely before slicing. Store any remaining stollen, well wrapped, in an airtight container. Recipe by Claire Thomson Source: BBC Good Food Recipe FROM: MMMMM