Wilma’s Stollen

I made my mother-in-law’s sweet cheese stollen for the people at work yesterday. It was popular. It was all gone very quickly.

“Was it stolen?” Libby asked.

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The cream cheese seeped out the sides of mine. I didn’t let the people at work see that. NSFW.

Important: you have to start this the night before you want to serve it.
Also important: it makes 4 stollens.

Shopping list:
1 and 1/4 c sugar, divided into 1/2 cup for the dough and 3/4 cup for the filling
5 cups flour
3 packets Active Dry yeast
1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)
3 eggs + 3 egg yolks (so, that’s 6 eggs)
1 cup Sour cream
3 8 oz packages of cream cheese
3 tsps vanilla
2-4 T Lemon juice
1/4 cup of powdered sugar or so

Makes 4 loaves. I suppose you could freeze the dough.

Dough:
Measure out 2T Active yeast (Tear open the packets and measure out 2 T. I think it took me three packets.)
Dissolve it in 1/2 cup warm water (temperature from 100-110 degrees).
Add 1/2 c sugar. (This is not all the sugar).
Set aside until fluffy.

Cream 1/2 pound butter (2 sticks) and 3 of the eggs.
Blend in 1 cup sour cream
Add in the yeast mixture you set aside.

Add 5 cups of flour one at a time. (I just learned this – did you know you really ARE supposed to spoon the flour into the cup and level it off. I thought we didn’t have to do that in these modern times with the self-leveling flour. But we still do. Otherwise, you end up with 20% more flour when you just scoop it out and level it.)

Pull out 4 squares of plastic wrap. Divide the (sticky) dough into 4 balls, plop each one in the center of a plastic wrap square, then wrap it up.

Refrigerate overnight.

Make the filling. (that night or the next day):
Cream together these things: 3 8 oz packages of cream cheese, 3 egg yolks, 3 tsps vanilla, and 3/4 cup sugar. That’s the filling

The next day, wake up three hours or so before you want to.

For each stollen, take a dough ball out of the refrigerator.
Preheat the oven to 375.
Grease a cookie sheet.
Unwrap a ball and push it out into a rectangle on the cookie sheet. You goal is to make it half an inch thick or less. Try not to touch it too much.

Spoon one fourth of the filling in the middle of the dough rectangle.
This next part isn’t easy, but it isnt supposed to look pretty: Take the right or left long side of the dough and stretch it over the filling to the middle.
Do the same thing with the other side. Pinch it together in the middle. Try to cover up all the filling but bits can peek through.

Let it rest for an hour of two until it has doubled in size.

Bake it for 20-25 minutes until it is brown.

But no! You are not done! You have to glaze it. Mix together the 2 T lemon juice and the powdered sugar until you have a glaze that tastes the way you like. Glaze the top with the mixture.