Directions

1. Soak the raisins in alcohol, like rum or orange liqueur, or apple juice, ideally overnight or at least a few hours before preparing the dough.
2. Heat the oven to 160° C or 360° F.
3. Put a silicone baking mat or a piece of parchment paper in a baking tray and dust with powdered sugar.
4. Sift flour in a big bowl and add to it the soft butter, sugar, egg yolk, ground almonds and cottage cheese.
5. Add also the baking powder, lemon zest and all the spices – cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Mix everything to form dough. The dough will be quite hard as there is not much liquid in it, but it should stick together and it should be possible to shape it.
6. Cut the candied orange or lemon peel, or both, into small pieces and add to the dough.
7. Add also the soaked raisins and mix the dough to combine everything. If the dough gets too wet and sticky, add a little bit of flour (half a tablespoon, tablespoon at a time). The dough should not stick to hands and it should be possible to shape it.
8. Dust the kitchen countertop with a bit of flour and flatten the dough, forming a rectangle.
9. Roll the marzipan like a sausage the same length as the dough. Put it into the middle of the dough and roll the dough around it. Gently roll the dough like a sausage about 2 cm in diameter.
10. Cut the dough into about 2 cm thick pieces. As there are raisins and candied peel in the dough, the cuts will not be smooth. I like to flatten each piece a little, so that they are flatter, smoother and somewhat similar, but it is not mandatory. If not flattened, the stollen bites will be a bit more chunky, rustic.
11. Arrange all on the baking tray and bake for about 20 – 25 minutes till stollenkonfekt look set and have slightly browned.
12. Remove stollen bites from the oven and brush with melted butter.
13. Let them cool a little before dusting generously with powdered sugar on both sides.
14. Enjoy!