I have been cooking up a christmassy storm and have somehow made the best stollen in history.

[wewishyouamerrylissiemas]

seriously, I dont know how i did it.

I made christmassy biscuits, then while the dough for those was chilling I made the dough for the stollen, left that to prove and made pastry for mince pies, chilled that and cut out biscuits while they were cooking i put together the mince pies, cooked the pies while biscuits cooled then put in the stollen.

my last stollen was NOT good, this one is bouncy and fruity in the middle with not too much marzipan, and has a lovely crust. its risen really well and tastes ridiculously good.

this time last year I couldnt even make biscuits!

where do you live??? Can I swap you a glass of wine or cherry brandy for a slice of stollen??

lol shropshire. dh has gone to work so ds and i will sit here and eat it with hot chocolate and mulled wine respectively, i think.

making gingerbread in the week with ds's cousins.

am scared.

Sounds delicious.

I've never attempted stollen but I was given one still warm from the oven the other day and it was AMAZING. Ate far too much of course.

Oh bum you're miles from us . Since you have had a steep learning curve in the past year I'm sure gingerbread will be easy!

tbh, it was quite easy, just time consuming.

used this recipe, just used SR flour rather than plain.

wewishyou - I am sending you lots of Christmas envy respect from Chez Tulpe. I tried to make stollen 8 years ago. DH is dutch and his mother Austrian so it was part & parcel of their christmas traditions. Mine was so appalling that I felt guilty feeding it to the birds

I am getting busy in the kitchen tomorrow with mince pies, marzipanning the cake, cranberry & white choc cookies, christmas cupcakes and a few other things.

ive never marzipanned cakes before, this is my first year making cakes (have made for whole family) so mil is helping me on tuesday.

Im Shropshire what time shall I be round ? Ill bring my festive chocolate slice very calorific.

ooh yum! ds is eating all the biscuits now. these baked goods will never last the week will they? where in shropshire are you? im telford.

Me too pops head out of window and waves

recipe

here

oooooo that sounds lovely am dreading making gingerbread though. with 3 children. all of whom are hyped up about christmas.