So here's the short of it, 
It's Honey Nut Stollen time.  

And here's the long

 So I got started about mid-morning.   I use a quick rise method - combining the yeast with a third of the dry ingredients and then adding the warm liquids and beating it very well. 

Yes, this recipe used every one of those eggs!  It's a very rich wonderful dough!

Then all the rest of the flour is added and I let the dough hooks go to town kneading the dough for about 10 or fifteen minutes.

Next the dough goes into a huge greased bowl and gets covered. It's allowed to rise in a warm place until it doubles in bulk.  Today Aunt Joyce and Daniel came by for a visit and we went down to Mom's for lunch, so I punched it down once and let it rise again while we went for lunch since I wouldn't have had time to finish it up.

After it rises, it's time to make the loaves.  It gets punched down and divided.  Today I doubled the recipe and wanted fairly good sized loafs, so I made it into 8.  It could also make 10 or 12 just depending on the size you wanted.

The honeyed nuts go on the inside before it gets folded over and sealed up!

It has to rise for another 30 - 45 minutes, and then it goes into the oven and cooks at a fairly low temperature for 30-35 minutes.

After coming out of the oven, it needs to cool for a bit.  Now the trick here is to make sure that Sophie doesn't decide that she just wants to have one for a snack.  She's the first dog we've ever had who was big enough to counter cruise!  She's on very good behavior, but if you leave her in the room by herself, she will help herself to whatever she finds.  Some of my loaves cracked today.  It will still be really good, and the icing will cover the crack, but I like it better when they all come out like that third one - all sealed up and nice.

The loaves have to cool down quite a bit before the icing goes on, or it just runs off.  Once the icing is on, the decorative nuts go on.  This year, I decided to make extra honeyed nuts and use them on top.  Usually I just put a few whole pecans on the top.  I think I like this better.

Here they are.  Eight Honey Nut Stollen Loaves.
They're going into gift bags - some to Atlanta.  And yes, one is right in our refrigerator - nice for breakfast on Christmas morning. 







This recipe came from one of my very first bread cook books, and it's a recipe I've been making at Christmastime for many years.  When I look for Stollen recipes online, I don't really find anything like it, but it's a favorite, so I keep on making it.