Stollen Bites

Delicious stollen bites made with marzipan, dried fruit, and dusted with icing sugar for the perfect festive treat

Yes, it may have taken many many years to finally bring you all this recipe that has been so highly requested over the years, but it is 100% worth it I can promise. These stollen bites are the best festive treat I have made in a while!

Festive baking

It’s Christmas 2024 as I am publishing this post, and I honestly can’t count how many times that I have made these stollen bites. The festive season is well and truly on the way with my all of my favourites such as my christmas NYC Cookies and my chocolate orange tart already made a couple of times. 

I just adore anything festive. It’s by far my favourite time of year, for the decorations, the tv shows, the colder weather… and of course, the food. I just want to gobble up everything ever if it’s got a festive twist. These, are now my new addiction…

What is Stollen?

Stollen is a traditionally German fruit bread that is made quite simply and easily with some dried fruit, nuts, and marzipan, and it sounds like a lot. I think typically this is one of those treats that I would have put my nose up to when I was younger as it looked far too fancy, but now I just love it. 

You can make it as a gift for people as it lasts a good while once bake, it’s something you can make ahead for yourself, or something you can make as you want to get into the festive spirit, and it’s so much easier to make than you think. 

Recipes will obviously vary from recipe to recipe as that always happens, but I adore this version. I have tried to simplify it as much as possible, and I purposely wanted to make individual bite versions for ease and I prefer them. 

The dough

It sounds like a lot, but all of the ingredients are needed for the texture and bake you are after – and don’t worry, it’s super easy to put together. 

• Flour – plain flour is the easiest and best to use as you don’t want the additional raising agents from self raising flour
• Raising agents – I use a small amount of baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda to create the rise and texture 
• Butter – I use unsalted block butter – margarines, or spreads, are too soft. 
• Sugar – I use caster sugar because it’s the most basic, but light brown soft sugar or golden caster sugar works 
• Spices & flavours – I love cinnamon, ginger, and some almond from some almond extract 
• Egg – one egg, I use medium, but a large is fine 
• Quark – I like using quark the best, but you can use soured cream, crème fraîche or even ricotta cheese instead 
• Lemon – the zest and juice of a medium/large sized lemon 

The filling  

So the flavour generally comes from the dough that is above, but also the filling bits and bobs. I use dried fruit, and also marzipan and it’s super simple.

• Marzipan – I buy a block of marzipan, and grate it. I find it easiest to grate it and then it’s easier to pull apart into the dough when you are kneading all of the dough ingredients together. It’s a little sticky, but that’s fine.  
• Dried fruit – you can use any dried fruit you want – I generally use sultanas, or a mixed dried fruit bag, but any works wonders. 

Making the bites

So when it comes to making the stollen bites, it’s nice and easy. Make sure the oven is nice and hot, as it bakes them perfectly (I do 200ºc in my fan oven). You add the flour, raising agents, sugar and butter into a bowl and rub to a breadcrumb texture. 

Add the marzipan, dried fruit, spices, lemon zest and mix in. Then you add the wet ingredients with the egg, quark, lemon juice and almond extract and mix again. You can do this with your hands and get messy, or a spatula, but it doesn’t take too much work. 

I use a 5cm scoop as it’s easier to portion the bites, but you can also just do this by hand as well. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden, and then immediately brush with some more melted butter and dunk in icing sugar as soon as they come out of the oven. I then let them cool slightly, and dust with a little more icing sugar, but this is optional. 

Tips & Tricks 

• These will last best for up to a week
• Can be kept for up to a month 
• Can be frozen 3+ months 
• I use this cookie scoop to portion my stollen bites 
• You can use any dried fruit you want 

Stollen Bites

Delicious stollen bites made with marzipan, dried fruit, and dusted with icing sugar for the perfect festive treat!

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cooling Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 16 bites

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

• 375 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking pwoder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100 g unsalted butter (cold and cubed)
• 75 g caster sugar
• 175 g marzipan (grated)
• 100 g dried fruit
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 medium egg
• 150 g quark
• 1 tsp almond extract

Dusting

• 50 g unsalted butter (melted)
• 100-200 g icing sugar

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 220ºc/200ºc fan and line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper
• Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate, sugar and butter to a bowl and rub together to a crumb texture
• Add the grated marzipan and dried fruit with lemon zest and spices 
• Add the egg, quark, lemon juice and zest and almond extract and mix with a fork or spatula (or your hands) to a sticky dough 
• Portion the stollen bites dough with a 5cm scoop or tablespoons and place onto the trays - I lightly roll them in my hands to a ball 
• Bake 12-15 minutes until golden
• When they come out of the oven, brush over with some melted butter and dust with icing sugar immediately 
• Cool slightly, dust with extra icing sugar if you fancy

Notes

• These will last best for up to a week
• Can be kept for up to a month 
• Can be frozen 3+ months 
• I use this cookie scoop to portion my stollen bites 
• You can use any dried fruit you want 

ENJOY!

Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!

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J x

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