A White Stollen from Christmas Past

At this time last year, I had all the time in the world to bake -- 3 consecutive snow days. Yes, you read it right -- three whole snow days out from work! Here's the proof via snowmen built in our hood! That hadn't ever happened on the East Coast. Over there I'd gone to work in blizzards, and actually it was kinda fun because you are ready for it and the sun shines on you most of the time, too.
 Last year in Seattle, the snow days got me all ambitious with my free holiday time. I baked something I'd been dying to try -- a White Stollen for a White Christmas!

I looked up various recipes and decided to use one with minimum butter and flour, as this was my first time baking a sweet bread from scratch. I started with this recipe with marzipan, but did not have all the dried fruits they list. I used the following instead: raisins, dried mango, candied ginger, and dried strawberries. I also decided to soak my fruits in 3 tablespoons of Grand Marnier, to make them taste more festive, and it really enhanced the flavor of my Stollen.

And of course, I can't leave out the spices! So I rolled my dough into two logs, which I then rolled through a mixture including ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, & ginger before baking. Just enough to make it smell and look good! Serve it with some butter and it's ever better! I also made an eggless version of this Stollen! using EnerG egg replacer, and it turned out quite well.

My Stollen became a gift sent in the mail, along with my Double Spiced Rum Balls. I was delighted to hear they survived the mail ride.