German Stollen (Vegan Christmas Fruit Bread) (2024)

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This German Christmas Stollen is a flavorful, moist, and delicious Fruit Bread Cake recipe that’s easy to make vegan without eggs, dairy butter and milk! The perfect festive pound cake for Advent season and Christmas holidays!

The Best Vegan German Christmas Stollen Recipe

If you’re a fan of German Christmas stollen but want to bake it yourself without dairy, eggs and additives, then this homemade vegan fruit bread recipe is perfect for you! The Christmas Stollen is not complicated to make at all and you can modify the basic recipe to your liking! In addition, this Stollen recipe is healthier than the traditional ones, because it uses much less fat and less sugar than usual. Since it is homemade with plant-based ingredients, it is not only vegan, but also and free of preservatives and cholesterol!

What is a Stollen?

A classic Stollen is a bread-shaped German loaf cake made of a heavy yeast dough. It generally consists of flour, yeast, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, spices and dried fruit (often raisins). However, there are also many variations with other fillings such as marzipan, nuts or poppy seeds.

While German Stollen is basically made all year round, it is traditionally very popular during Advent season and Christmas holidays. Some popular Stollen variations are:

Marzipan Stollen: also known as Persipan Stollen.
Nut Stollen: especially the Almond Stollen is very popular
Poppy Seed Stollen: is made with a poppy seed filling.
Dresdener Stollen: is a very rich Butter Raisin Stollen.
Quark Stollen: is made with a portion of quark or cream cheese.
Butter Stollen: usually contains a lot of butter.

Ingredients used:

All-purpose flour: or light spelt flour. However, you can also try gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour as a gluten-free substitute.
Almond flour: or other ground nuts.
Yeast: you can use both, fresh or dry yeast.
Soy milk: or other plant milk such as oat, cashew, or almond milk.
Raw cane sugar: or other sugar.
Applesauce: or thick dairy-free yogurt, also know as „quark alternative“.
Vegan butter: soft.
Spices: you can create your own mix, depending on what you like and have on hand. I use a pinch of salt, cinnamon, a stollen spice blend of cardamom, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla, plus some bitter almond extract.
Dried fruit mix: raisins, candied orange peel, candied lemon peel, rum or orange juice. You can also substitute any other dried fruit.
Powdered sugar: for dusting.

How to make German Christmas stollen

As always, I recommend checking out this step-by-step instruction and the recipe video first. Then you’ll find the full recipe with the exact measurements in the recipe card below!

Step 1: Prepare the dried fruit mixture

The day before, place the raisins, candied orange and lemon peel in a bowl. Pour the rum over them and mix well. Then let soak covered overnight.

Step 2: Prepare the yeast dough

First, dissolve the yeast with 1 tablespoon of sugar in the soy milk. Next, put the flour in a bowl and form a well in the middle. Then pour the yeast mixture into the well and cover with flour from the edges. Set aside for 15-20 minutes.

After that, add the remaining ingredients and knead everything for 5-8 minutes with the dough hooks of a stand mixer (or with your hands). Then add the soaked dried fruit mixture and knead briefly on a slow speed until incorporated. Now let the dough rise for 1 hour covered in a warm place.

Tip: If you want to bake the stollen the next day, you can put the bowl in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, take out the bowl 20 minutes before shaping the loaf.

Step 3: Shape and bake the Stollen

After the resting time, shape the dough into a Stollen (as shown in the recipe video or in the step-by-step pictures). Then place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rest, covered, for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 392°F (200 °C) and bake the stollen for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 320°F (160 °C) and bake for another approx. 45 minutes.

Tip: If the Stollen gets too dark during baking, cover it loosely with parchment paper.

Step 4: Brushing the Stollen

Once done baking, brush the Christmas Stollen with melted vegan butter while it is still hot. Then allow to cool completely and dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Tip: The Stollen tastes best after 1-2 weeks once the flavors have developed. Please follow the storage instructions below.

How to store Stollen properly

Stollen are known to have a long shelf life. However, it is important to bake them long enough and store them properly.

The best way to store your Christmas Stollen is to wrap it in plastic wrap first, then place it in an airtight bag or container. Wrapped airtight and stored in a cool, dry place, it stays fresh for a around 4 weeks.

I do not recommend storing it in the refrigerator, or the stollen may become hard and dry quickly. However, if it gets too hard or dry, you can heat your piece in the microwave for a few seconds before eating. This will make it soft and delicious again!

Recipe Notes

Spices: You can mix up the spice blend to your liking.
Dried fruit: Instead of raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, you can also use other finely chopped dried fruit such as figs, dates, apricots, cranberries or plums.
Marzipan: Optionally, you can also form marzipan paste into a flat long stick and wrap it into the Stollen as a filling.
Baking pan: If you have a Stollen baking pan, feel free to use it.

Want to make mini Stollen bites?

You can also make Mini Stollen Bites with this recipe! Depending on the size, you just need to adjust the baking time. If making 50-60 mini bites, the baking time is about 15-20 minutes at 392°F (200 °C).

This vegan German Christmas Stollen recipe is:

Dairy-free
Egg-less
Can be made gluten-free
Easy to make
Moist and fruity
Great to make ahead
Totally delicious!
Like from the bakery
The perfect afternoon cake for coffee time in autumn and winter!
Ideal for the Christmas and Advent season!

More holiday recipes to try

Looking for more simple baking recipes for the holidays? Here are a few favorite recipes from my vegan Christmas bakery:

Cinnamon Rolls
Apple Stuffed Buns
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie Bars
Mini Apple Pies
White Chocolate Tart
Vanilla CrescentCookies
Cinnamon Stars
Linzer Cookies (Spitzbuben)
Gingerbread Cookies
Chocolate Cookie Butter Cake
Cranberry Vanilla Cake
Cranberry Orange Bread
Pumpkin Bread

If you try this German stollen bread recipe, feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you share a photo of your delicious fruit loaf cake on Instagram, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka because I love seeing your creations! Happy baking! 🙂

German Christmas Stollen (Vegan Fruit Bread)

Author: Bianca Zapatka

German Christmas Stollen is a flavorful, moist, and delicious Fruit Bread Cake that’s easy to make vegan without eggs, dairy butter and milk! The perfect festive pound cake for Advent season and Christmas holidays!

4.75 von 4 Bewertungen

Ingredients

Yeast Dough

3 ¾ cup (450 g) all-purpose flour or light spelt flour
½ cup (50 g) almond flour or other ground nuts
1 tbsp (21 g) fresh yeast or 2 tsp dry yeast (7 g)
⅓ cup (80 ml) soy milk or other plant milk
⅓ cup (75 g) raw cane sugar or other sugar
¼ cup (60 g) applesauce or soy quark
5 oz (140 g) vegan butter soft
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp stollen spice mix made from a pinch each of cardamom, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla (*see notes)
1-2 tsp bitter almond extract optional

Dried Fruit Mix

1 cup (150 g) raisins
1 cup (75 g) candied orange peel
1 cup (75 g) candied lemon peel
¼ cup (50 ml) rum or orange juice

To Coat

2-3 tbsp vegan butter melted
powdered sugar

Instructions

Prepare the dried fruit mixture

Put the raisins, candied orange peel and candied lemon peel in a bowl. Pour the rum over them and mix everything well. Then let soak covered overnight.

Prepare the yeast dough

Warm the soy milk to lukewarm (approx. 95°F, 35 °C). Add one tbsp of the sugar, crumble in the yeast and mix until the yeast has dissolved.
Put the flour in a bowl and form a well in the middle. Pour the yeast mixture into the well and cover with flour from the edges. Set aside for 15-20 minutes.
Then add almond flour, remaining sugar, salt, cinnamon, stollen spice mix, applesauce and vegan butter and knead for 5-8 minutes with the dough hook of a stand mixer (or with your hands). Lastly, add the soaked dried fruit mixture and optional bitter almond extract and mix briefly on a slow speed until incorporated.
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour. (Tip: If you want to bake the Stollen the next day, you can place the bowl in the refrigerator overnight afterward. The next day, take out the bowl 20 minutes before shaping the stollen).

Shape and bake the Stollen

Shape the dough into a Stollen (as shown in the recipe video or in the step-by-step pictures above). Then place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise, covered, for another 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 392°F (200 °C). Place the stollen in the hot oven and bake for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 320°F (160 °C) and bake for another approx. 45 minutes (if it gets too dark during baking, cover loosely with parchment paper).
Melt the vegan butter and brush the baked Stollen with it while it is still hot. Allow to cool completely, then dust with powdered sugar.
Enjoy!

Notes

Spices: You can create your own stollen spice mix as you like.
Dried fruit: Instead of raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, you can also use other finely chopped dried fruit such as figs, dates, apricots, cranberries or plums.
Marzipan: Optionally, you can form marzipan paste into a flat long bar and incorporate it in step 5 as a filling.
Baking pan: if you have a Stollen baking mold, feel free to use it.
Stollen bites: You can also make stollen bites with this recipe. For 50-60 pieces, the baking time is about 15-20 minutes at 392°F (200 °C).
Tip: The Stollen tastes best after 1-2 weeks. Please read the storage instructions at the in the blog post above to ensure it is stored properly and does not dry out.
The nutritional information doesn't include powdered sugar.
More information about the recipe is also mentioned in the blog post above!

Nutritions

Nutrition is calculated automatically and should be used as estimate.

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