Vegan stollen - this vegan version of a traditional German Dresden Stollen is a wonderful treat for Christmas. You can eat it right away or make it in advance and let it mature for a couple of weeks before serving for the best flavour.
One of my absolute favourite Christmas treats (of which I have many...) is stollen; the dense, cakey, fruity, preferably marzipan filled festive German bread.
While it is possible to buy vegan stollen from lots of supermarkets, I was determined to make my own version as homemade is always better.
It took me four attempts to get the perfect texture but the end result is perfect - a dense, moist, flavourful loaf filled with rum soaked fruit and a marzipan centre.
Stollen isn't a light and fluffy bread, it is designed to have a very high fat content which allows it to be kept for a long time without drying out. This means that the texture is almost dense cake-like rather than bread.
I'm not going to lie, this recipe is a bit of a labour of love but the results are so, so worth it! Because it is such a heavily enriched dough it takes a long time to rise and you will need to make the bread over the course of three days.
Don't worry though, there is very little active work involved, just a whole lot of leaving the dough alone to rise! The recipe also makes two loaves of stollen so the time spent is doubly worth it.
I did try making a couple of loaves with a shorter rising time but the results were overly heavy and dense so I'm afraid that the long rise is necessary!
How To Make Vegan Stollen:
(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)
*For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.*
You need to make this stollen over the course of three days. On the evening of the first day, mix together raisins, candied mixed peel and rum. Give it a good stir, cover and leave to soak overnight.
The following day, stir some chopped almonds into the fruit mixture.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together plain flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg.
Add lukewarm unsweetened non-dairy milk (soy is best), vanilla and almond extracts, grated orange and lemon zest and lots of softened vegan block butter. You ideally want to use a block butter/margarine rather than the spreadable kind in a tub for the best texture; I use Naturli Vegan Block.
Give it a good mix until it forms a rough dough then knead with the mixer on a high speed for about 10 minutes until the dough is very smooth and elastic and it comes away from the sides of the bowl cleanly.
You can knead the dough by hand on an unfloured surface if you don't have a stand mixer.
Add the soaked fruit and nut mixture and knead until it is well distributed.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl and set aside to rise in a warm spot until it has almost doubled in size. This can take 5-8 hours depending on how warm it is.
Once the dough has risen, place the covered bowl in the fridge overnight.
The following day, remove the bowl from the fridge and leave it to come up to room temperature for 2 hours.
Knock the dough back and divide it into two equal pieces (I use a scale for accuracy).
Roll each ball of dough out on a lightly floured surface to a rough rectangle about 1 - 1 ½ cm thick.
Divide your marzipan in half and roll each half into a log a little shorter than your dough rectangles. Place the marzipan logs just off centre on the dough.
Fold the smaller half of dough over the marzipan then fold the other half over the top and press gently to seal. Make sure that the ends are also sealed.
Place the logs well spaced apart on a greaseproof paper lined baking sheet and loosely cover. Set aside to rise in a warm place for 3-4 hours until they have increased in size by 50%. They will not double. Meanwhile preheat the oven.
Once the logs are puffy, bake them for 40-45 minutes until the internal temperature reaches at least 94°C/201°F on a probe thermometer. If they start to become too dark before they are ready you can loosely cover them with tin foil.
Once the stollen are baked, remove the logs from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes. Pick off any raisins that are on the surface as they will be burnt and bitter.
Brush the stollen very generously with melted vegan butter and leave it to set.
Once the butter has set, sprinkle them with a thick layer of icing sugar and leave to cool completely before wrapping and storing.
Top Tips:
Stollen is supposed to have a very high fat content - half fat to flour. DO NOT reduce it otherwise the bread will be dry and won't keep.
I usually use bread flour when baking bread, but because we want a more cake-like texture here, plain (all-purpose) flour is the best choice.
Ideally you should use a block butter/margarine rather than the spreadable kind in a tub for the best texture; I use Naturli Vegan Block.
If it is a really cold day and you want to speed up the rising time of the dough a bit, you can warm up the oven a bit on a low heat, switch it off and open the door for 30 seconds to let out some of the heat then place the (covered) dough in the oven with the door slightly ajar.
The best way to tell if bread is baked properly is to check the internal temperature with a probe thermometer. It should reach at least 94°C/201°F.
You can eat the stollen right away if you want (let it cool completely first though!) but it will have the best flavour and texture if you wrap it up in baking parchment and tin foil and let it mature in a cool, dry place for one to two weeks before you slice it.
Provided it is well wrapped, the stollen will keep for up to six weeks so it is perfect to give as gifts for Christmas.
How To Store Vegan Stollen:
Once the loaves of stollen are baked, brush them generously all over with melted vegan butter while they are still warm. Allow the butter to set then sprinkle them with a very thick layer of icing sugar. This butter and sugar coating helps to seal in the moisture and stop them from drying out so don't skip it!
Once the loaves are completely cold, wrap them first in baking parchment then tin foil and store them in a cool, dark place for up to six weeks.
Can I Freeze Vegan Stollen?:
Yes, the loaves can be frozen for up to three months provided they are well wrapped. Allow to defrost at room temperature.
More Vegan Christmas Recipes:
- Vegan mince pies
- Vegan Christmas cake
- Vegan Christmas pudding
- Vegan mincemeat cake
- Vegan mulled wine brownies
- Vegan steamed chocolate pudding
- chocolate gingerbread cookies
- starry mince pie tart
If you tried this recipe why not tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess
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Vegan Stollen
Ingredients
Fruit Mixture:
- 250 g (9 oz) raisins
- 125 g (4 ½ oz) candied mixed peel
- 50 ml (3 tablespoon + 1 tsp) rum
- 50 g (1 ¾ oz) chopped almonds
Stollen Dough:
- 500 g (4 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 10 g (2 ½ tsp) instant/fast action yeast
- 100 g (½ cup) caster/granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 200 ml (½ + ⅓ cup) lukewarm unsweetened non-dairy milk (soy is best)
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- finely grated zest of 1 orange
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 250 g (9 oz) vegan block butter (I use Naturli Vegan Block) softened
- 300 g (10 ½ oz) marzipan
To Finish:
- 50 g (1 ¾ oz) vegan block butter melted
- icing (powdered) sugar for dusting
Instructions
Day 1:
- You need to make this stollen over the course of three days. On the evening of the first day, mix together the raisins, candied mixed peel and rum. Give it a good stir, cover and leave to soak overnight.
Day 2:
- The following day, stir the chopped almonds into the fruit mixture.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the plain flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg.
- Add the lukewarm non-dairy milk, vanilla and almond extracts, grated orange and lemon zest and softened vegan block butter.
- Give it a good mix until it forms a rough dough then knead with the mixer on a high speed for about 10 minutes until the dough is very smooth and elastic and it comes away from the sides of the bowl cleanly.
- If you don't have a stand mixer you can knead the dough by hand on an unfloured surface for 10-15 minutes until it is smooth, stretchy and no longer sticky.
- Add the soaked fruit and nut mixture and knead until it is well distributed.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl and set aside to rise in a warm spot until it has almost doubled in size. This can take 5-8 hours depending on how warm it is.
- Once the dough has risen, place the covered bowl in the fridge overnight.
Day 3:
- The following day, remove the bowl from the fridge and leave it to come up to room temperature for 2 hours.
- Knock the dough back and divide it into two equal pieces (I use a scale for accuracy).
- Roll each ball of dough out on a lightly floured surface to a rough rectangle about 1 - 1 ½ cm thick.
- Divide the marzipan in half and roll each half into a log a little shorter than your dough rectangles. Place the marzipan logs just off centre on the dough.
- Fold the smaller half of dough over the marzipan then fold the other half over the top and press gently to seal. Make sure that the ends are also sealed.
- Place the logs well spaced apart on a greaseproof paper lined baking sheet and loosely cover. Set aside to rise in a warm place for 3-4 hours until they have increased in size by 50%. They will not double. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Once the logs are puffy, bake them for 40-45 minutes until the internal temperature reaches at least 94°C/201°F on a probe thermometer. If they start to become too dark before they are ready you can loosely cover them with tin foil.
- Once the stollen are baked, remove the logs from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove any raisins from the surface as they will be burnt and bitter.
- Brush the stollen generously with the melted vegan butter and leave it to set.
- Once the butter has set, sprinkle them with a thick layer of sifted icing sugar and leave to cool completely.
- Once the stollen are completely cold, wrap them first in a layer of baking parchment then a layer of tin foil and store in a cool, dry place for up to six weeks.
Notes
- For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.
- See the post above for step-by-step photos.
- Stollen is supposed to have a very high fat content – half fat to flour. DO NOT reduce it otherwise the bread will be dry and won’t keep.
- I usually use bread flour when baking bread, but because we want a more cake-like texture here, plain (all-purpose) flour is the best choice.
- Ideally you should use a block butter/margarine rather than the spreadable kind in a tub for the best texture; I use Naturli Vegan Block.
- If it is a really cold day and you want to speed up the rising time of the dough a bit, you can warm up the oven a bit on a low heat, switch it off and open the door for 30 seconds to let out some of the heat then place the (covered) dough in the oven with the door slightly ajar.
- The best way to tell if bread is baked properly is to check the internal temperature with a probe thermometer. It should reach at least 94°C/201°F.
- You can eat the stollen right away if you want (let it cool completely first though!) but it will have the best flavour and texture if you wrap it up in baking parchment and tin foil and let it mature in a cool, dry place for one to two weeks before you slice it.
- Provided it is well wrapped, the stollen will keep for around six weeks so it is perfect to give as gifts for Christmas.
Celia Yates
Oh my goodness I m so glad I found you site.there are so many lovely vegan recipes to tryi m not vegan but my 20year old grandson has been vegan for about seven months and I love trying out different recipes for him.i hardly ever go anywhere else but your site.you explain everything so well..congrats on your site.xx celia
joe
i’m so perplexed. i made this to the letter of your recipe. it’s got a really odd taste to it. reminds me of sprouted wheat bread. almost a plastic flavour. lots of work and a bit bummed out about it but i don’t know what to do with it or how it happened.
hannahhossack
Hi Joe, so sorry to hear that but without being there when you made it I can't really tell what went wrong. I made four of them and none of them tasted weird or plasticky so perhaps it could be down to the specific brands of ingredients that you used.
Lara Cole
Wow, I've never made stollen before, this recipe was 3 days in the making, just the way it was... So worth it though, absolutely delicious! How come I've never made Marzipan before either, so simple! Definitely plan on making more, so much better than shop bought. I didn't have rosewater so used my homemade rosehip syrup to bind Marzipan, worked a treat.. Thank you!!
Lesley Rayner
Hi Hannah, do you think this will work with gluten free flour? Keeping my fingers crossed as it looks amazing.
hannahhossack
Hi Lesley, I don't know I'm afraid, I don't do much gluten free baking. I suspect that it wouldn't work particularly well however.
Harrison Wright
Completely worth the time and effort, absolutely delicious and exactly as I remember stollen tasting. Brilliant!!
Annie Frost
My family won’t eat mixed peel. Do I just increase the raisins, or simply omit it? Any other suggestions? Thank you.
Hannah
Hi Annie, either is fine, I would personally go with extra raisins.
Freya
Amazing! Was a little sceptical about the length of the process but it was certainly worth it, a really Christmas crowd-pleaser 🙂
OK
Tried this recipe, the vegan butter leaked out during the rise on the 3rd day. I used earth's balance iirc.
hannahhossack
That's odd, I've never had that happen before! Perhaps the dough got too warm while it was rising. We don't have Earth Balance in the UK so I can't say whether the particular brand of butter had anything to do with it or not.
Natasha
I made this over the weekend and it's delicious! Now wrapped up to 'steep'. By mistake I put 50g extra of vegan butter in, and had to put quite a lot more flour and sugar in to make the dough firm enough to knead. But it still came out really well.
I also used some orange blossom water instead of rose water for the marzipan and that was also good.
Great recipe, thanks!
Lesley
My daughters have recently become vegan, so Christmas preparations have been a little different this year, but I didn't want to sacrifice all the lovely traditional faves we've come to love. This stollen is hands down the most delicious I've ever made. Absolute heaven! My go-to from now on. Thanks!
Suzanne Gannon
I'm planning on making this, but can't find a recipe on your site for making the marzipan (although two of the people commenting on it say they subbed something other than rose water when making theirs, so I assume it's somewhere). Can you point me to the recipe you'd recommend for making my own marzipan please? Thanks for all the recipes you share. All I've tried to date have been fab.
Hannah
Hi Suzanne, I don't actually have a marzipan recipe and am generally lazy and just use shop-bought so I don't know what recipe the people commenting used I'm afraid!
Jo
Excited to try this- could I divide the dough into 4 to make mini stollens? Would anything change? Thanks!
Hannah
Hi Jo, yes that will work but they won't take as long to bake, about 30 minutes maybe.
Kelsey
Would it be possible to halve this recipe so it only makes one stollen, rather than two? Thanks!
Hannah
Hi Kelsey, sure!
Olga
Making this second year in a row. Fantastic recipe, thank you so much!
Maija Beattie
This is now our Christmas morning bread. Outstanding!
Simon
Yes, a really good recipe with which all steps must be followed. Turned out really great and I even made the marzipan a day ahead with powdered almonds, icing sugar and water so it is a very natural almond taste. I work professionally as a baker and wanted to go back to a comment a few years ago from Joe who had a weird taste to his Stollen. I make a lot of cinnamon based products and have had that same weird plastic taste from ground cinnamon based upon cassia rather than the true ceylon variety so perhaps it was that?
Maija Beattie
Our newest Christmas tradition! Delicious in every way!
Stacy Barneveld-Taylor
Hi Domesticgothess, this is the second time I have made your vegan Stollen and it is delicious. My German friend tried it (without telling her it was vegan) and she said it was better than her mothers! She couldn't believe it was vegan. So the question is, I have this issue with the stollen slightly burning or being over cooked on the bottom. I think it could be from me using a anodized black baking sheet, it's the only one I have or it's due to the fact that I have one of those small over/stoves, like for a flat. Maybe it gets too hot from the bottom, although I bake them in the middle. Could you advise on some troubleshooting?? Does the baking tray need to be flat or does it matter if it has turned up edges?? Would it be good to use a Silicone baking mat? Any assistance would be appreciated. Everyone loves it, even with the bit of over carmelized bottom. Thanks, Stacy
Alicia
I have made this stollen every year since 2021 and it never fails to be amazing (just like all the other recipes I’ve tried on this site)! Thank you for such wonderful vegan recipes and the detailed explanations that make them so easy to follow! I especially appreciate the internal temperature to check doneness, always comes out perfectly.
Juliet
I’m about to make this but I don’t want to make two loaves, do I just halve the entire recipe or combine everything? It’s only for 4 people