Christmas Stollen with Nutella^®

HOW TO MAKE A CHRISTMAS STOLLEN WITH NUTELLA^®

1. 

   Prepare the yeast dough: 
   Soak the raisins in rum or orange juice for at least 1 hour, ideally overnight.
   
   Gently warm the milk in a saucepan until lukewarm. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, vanilla extract, and warm milk. Crumble in the yeast and stir until dissolved. Add the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, salt, and butter, and mix with a hand mixer. Add the eggs and knead for about 5 minutes until a smooth dough forms. Incorporate the candied orange peel, soaked raisins, and chopped hazelnuts, then knead again. Shape the dough into a ball, cover, and let it rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, until doubled in size.

2. 

   Shape the dough:
   Knead the dough briefly on a floured surface and divide in half. Roll each half into a rectangle (approx. 20 × 25 cm, 1 cm thick). Roll out half of the marzipan on a little powdered sugar and place it on top of each dough piece. Stack the two dough sheets with their marzipan layers and roll them up towards the centre from both sides, rolling one side slightly further than the other. Gently press the larger roll onto the smaller one.

3. 

   Baking the Stollen:
   Place the shaped Stollen on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover, and let rest for another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 160 °C (fan) and bake the Stollen for about 40 minutes. After half the baking time, cover loosely with aluminium foil. Leave to cool completely.

   Decorate with Nutella^®:
   Cut the Stollen into 25-30 slices. Spread each slice with 15 g of Nutella^®, sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts and enjoy.