Low Sugar Stollen Bites
Stollen is one of my favourite Christmas treats. I adore marzipan, and the soft, not-too-sweet dough combined with the marzipan centre and mincemeat-flavour is just delightful. I truly feel like it must be Christmas when I get to bite into a snowy piece of stollen.
When my parents lived in Bratislava, Slovakia, I went to spend Christmas with them. I was seriously ill. Less than a month later, I would discover I had cancer of the lymphatic system and leap straight into six months of chemotherapy with barely the time to blink and take it in. I was unhappy where I was living at university, I had lost a ton of weight and I was short of breath and weak all.the.time.
But I’ve always been one to see the silver lining. And this was it. That Christmas. I had never been so happy to see my family, so desperate to spend time with them, so grateful for the snow (England is usually sorely lacking in snow in December). And I got to go to my first proper full-on Christmas market.
Sure, I’d been to many small Christmas fayres. I’d walked through French cities breathing in the delightful aroma of roasting chestnuts surrounding me. I’d seen twinkling Christmas lights in Brussels growing up. But that year, I got to go to Vienna Christmas market. Told you it was a proper full-on one!
It was many years ago now, but I still remember it vividly. I can shut my eyes and smell the chocolate, hear the music, feel the busyness. I loved it. And the stollen…well, let’s just say, no stollen is quite as good when it is outside of Austria! (Nor, incidentally, are the Mozart chocolates I used to get my parents to bring me by the bucketful when they lived there in my pre-sugar-detox days. ;))
Stollen is one of those things I have felt it worth eating a little sugar for as a Christmas treat. But this year, out of sheer curiosity or audacity (take your pick), I wondered if perhaps I could create some without the same sugar high that would inevitably also lead me to stomach cramps and a “sugar hangover” the next morning (urgh, so not what I want at Christmastime).
It’s not an easy thing to make without sugar. Not at all. But once I had a fantastic sugar free marzipan recipe, I figured I must be at least halfway there. And when I decided to thrown caution (and tradition – so sorry Austria!) to the wind and tried kneading some of my low carb mincemeat into the dough, I realised that while nothing may ever quite live up to the Viennese Christmas market standards, this was the best stollen I had had outside of that day.
I call that a win. Hopefully you will, too.
It takes a little faff, but more because it requires three separate components that you bring together than anything else. The marzipan is made in a food processor in less than 2 minutes. The mincemeat is made in one-pan in less than 10 (and you get loads extra to make mince pies with), and the dough is a simple “mix, knead, wait, roll” type that is hard to mess up. I promise.
So if you want to make something impressive this Christmas, something that everyone will never ever believe is low in sugar and that will require a couple of hours (most of it waiting) out of your day, but little hands on effort, then have a go. You won’t be disappointed! You could even get the kids involved – my two-year-old loves bashing kneading the dough and pushing the food processor buttons and my three-and-a-half-year-old enjoys making the mincemeat pretty much by herself (with supervision over the stove!).
You can of course make this as one big stollen loaf if you prefer, but I personally love the bite-size, after dinner or edible gift version, so have stuck to that for the recipe!
I’ll be back after Christmas with some more low sugar recipes for you all, but I am signing off for a few days now to enjoy our holidays and all of the delicious low sugar Christmas treats we’ve been busy testing for you all! 😉
MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody! Thank you for sticking with the blog this year and helping it to grow from strength to strength. I’m very excited about the year ahead and some of the things we have planned, so keep an eye out! 🙂
Delicious, soft, fluffy stollen bites that require little hands on time but seriously impress! Low in sugar but high in flavour, perfect for a healthier Christmas treat or edible gift. A wonderful family holiday baking recipe.
- 2 tsp active dried yeast
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) warm milk
- 1 tsp rice syrup
- 285 g (2 cups) strong white (bread) flour
- pinch salt (about 1/2 tsp)
- 50 g (1/4 cup) xylitol
- 85 g (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 medium egg
- 1 heaped tbsp sugar free mincemeat* + 2 heaped tbsp flour or 3 tbsp raisins or dried cranberries
- zest of 1/2 orange or 1/4 satsuma
- 1 tbsp raisins or dried cranberries
- 3 tbsp chopped blanched almonds or walnuts
- 1 batch sugar free marzipan**
- milk, melted butter or beaten egg, for glazing
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Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and stir in the rice syrup. Leave on the side for 5 mins, until frothy.
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Mix the flour, salt, xylitol, melted butter and egg together, along with the yeast & milk mixture, to form a dough, then knead by hand or with a stand mixer for 3-4 mins until smooth. Place in a lightly oiled bowl (can be the same one you used to mix it) and cover with a damp tea towel or cling film. Leave to rise for at least an hour, or until doubled in size (if it doesn't rise that much, don't stress, it's not the end of the world!).
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When the dough has risen, punch it down and roll out a little on a well-floured surface (it doesn't matter how big you roll it right now). Place the mincemeat and flour (or raisins/cranberries), orange or satsuma zest, extra raisins or cranberries and chopped nuts into the centre of the dough and bring the sides up over it. Knead the mixture into the dough until it is well-incorporated and evenly distributed.
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Roll the dough out to a large rectangle roughly 1 cm (1/2") thick. Divide the marzipan into two and roll out to long sausage shapes almost the whole length of the dough. Place the marzipan rolls on each side of the dough and pull the dough over each piece of marzipan to meet in the middle (you may need to roll the dough a little over the marzipan, which is fine).
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Cut the dough vertically down the middle so you have two long lengths of dough filled with marzipan, then cut each of those sausage shapes into 12 bite-size pieces. Place on a large baking tray lined with baking paper (you may need 2 trays or to repeat the baking a second time with 1 tray), making sure the stollen bites don't touch. Brush them all with a little melted butter and cover with some lightly oiled cling film. Allow to rise for about 30 mins, while you preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5.
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After the 30 mins, brush the stollen bites with a little more melted butter or a little milk or beaten egg, then bake for about 15-20 mins, until the tops are golden brown and the marzipan is bubbling. Move to a cooling rack and allow to cool. Although delicious cool, I believe these bites are best served warm, so I tend to serve them warm or reheat them for 10 secs in the microwave before serving at a later stage.
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