Eggless Stollen | Rich Fruit Bread Recipe

Learn how to make German style rich fruit bread – Eggless Stollen recipe with detailed step by step pictures. Easy stollen recipe that’s perfect for the holidays!

Eggless Stollen is a German style rich fruit bread recipe that is made around Christmas, with fruits soaked in rum or orange juice. Traditionally stollen bread is made with soaked fruits, yeast-leavened dough mixed with soaked fruits, candied orange peel and marzipan filling. In this eggless stollen bread recipe, I have replaced eggs with milk and orange juice. Although yeasted, this feels more like a dense cake and is perfect to be served as a dessert or coffee time accompaniment. The shape of the stollen resembles a wrapped baby, significant to how it is made for Christmas – do check out the step wise pictures to understand how I folded the stollen bread.

Jump to:

• Key Ingredients
• Tips & Important Notes for Making Eggless Stollen
• Substitutions & Variations
• Storing & Serving Suggestions
• Similar Recipes
• Eggless Stollen Recipe with Step by Step Pictures
• Recipe Notes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Key Ingredients

Soaked fruits are added to the yeasted dough to make the rich fruit bread. You can use rum soaked fruits or make an instant version too. Also, fruit mix can be either made with rum or any liquor of your choice and orange juice for no-liquor version.

All-Purpose flour is used to make the dough for this bread, I don’t recommend using whole grain flour as the bread can get very dense.

Active Instant Dry Yeast is the leavening agent used in the fruit bread recipe.

Almond Meal or finely ground almonds are used to the flavor the eggless stollen bread.

Fresh Orange Juice, Candied Orange Peel provide a fresh, citrusy flavor to the fruit bread.

Butter is used to make the stollen, so it stays rich and delicious for long.

Sugar and Powdered Sugar are both used in this recipe.

For full list of ingredients and exact measurements, check the recipe below.

Tips & Important Notes for Making Eggless Stollen

Making eggfree stollen bread is simple and easy, it is also a beginner-friendly recipe. If it is your first time working with yeasted dough, do not worry – it is not complicated. Check out the tips and notes below if you are giving this recipe a try!

Active Instant Dry Yeast does not need to be proofed separately, but for this recipe I still prefer to proof it in warm milk and sugar. Set it aside and let it rest for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is frothy.

Any choice of dry fruits and nuts can be used in the soaking mixture but if you have pre-soaked Christmas cake fruits, it works best for this recipe. If you are using instant fruit mix, I would suggest you to stew the fruits in orange juice.

As the bread dough is slightly denser and heavier than normal, it would take a little longer for the dough to bulk in size and do not expect double the bulk volume.

The dough gets sticky during proofing and it becomes easier to handle with a parchment paper. Rub your hands with little oil if the dough sticks while rolling.

Substitutions & Variations

Apart from using soaked fruits, you can also use marzipan as a stuffing when rolling the bread.

The same recipe can be made into mini rolls or buns too.

To make vegan stollen recipe, replace milk with water and use oil to bake stollen bread instead of butter.

Orange juice can be used to instantly soak dry fruits and nuts by stewing them for a few minutes.

Storing & Serving Suggestions

Eggless Stollen Bread can be stored at room temperature for over two weeks, it is not necessary to store it in fridge and it can become slightly dense on refrigerating. It freezes well too, just tightly wrap it in cling film and store it in a zip-lock pouch. It can be thawed as needed in the fridge or at room temperature. It serves great as a coffee-time accompaniment as well as dessert!

Similar Recipes

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Eggless Stollen Recipe with Step by Step Pictures

In a small bowl add 1 teaspoon sugar with 1 teaspoon active instant dry yeast along with warm milk. Mix well and leave it aside for 5-10 mins until it is frothy.

Meanwhile add 1 cardamom, 2 cloves and ⅛ nutmeg with a teaspoon of sugar in a mixer and blend it smooth. Set aside

In a mixing bowl add 1 & ¾ cups of all purpose flour and pour the frothy yeast mixture at the center.

Next add 2 tablespoon melted butter and remaining of the ¼ cup sugar. Roughly mix everything together.

Now add the powdered spice mix along with 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder and mix again.

Next add ¼ cup almond meal and mix it well.

Add ½ cup soaked fruit mixture along with 2 tablespoon candied orange peel.

Mix well and then add ⅓ cup fresh orange juice and a pinch of salt.

Using a spoon, roughly mix the dough together. If it is too sticky, add a little bit of flour. Lightly knead the dough for 3-4 mins until it comes together.

Leave it to proof in a warm place for 1-2 hours until it has almost doubled in volume.

Gently punch it down and start making a tight ball of it by bringing the edges & folding them at the center.

Tuck all the edges tightly and roll it over so that the dough forms a tight roll.

Now place it on a parchment paper and pat it gently to a centimeter in thickness oval shape.

To make the stollen roll, starting at one edge, make folds as shown below.

From the pointed end, start rolling the dough tightly.

Again, pat the dough to an oval shape, but about 2 to 3 centimeter in thickness.

Using a thin rolling pin, make two indentations as shown below.

The center of the dough should look bulged.

To give the stollen bread final shape, fold one of the indented parts over the center bulge so that it looks folded as below. Carefully transfer the bread to a baking pan.

Leave it to proof for 30-45mins in a warm place. At the end of the proofing time, preheat the oven at 180°C for 10 mins.

Bake it at 180°C for 10 mins and then at 160°C for 35-40mins until it is golden brown.

Generously coat with butter immediately upon removing from oven.

Dust the bread with icing sugar or powdered sugar as needed on top.

The bread should be at room temperature before it can be sliced. It can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for over 2 weeks. Serves best with coffee or as a dessert.

Recipe Notes

• Choice of dry fruits and nuts totally depends on the availability and preference. Checkout the recipe for soaking fruits for christmas
• The amount of sugar in this recipe makes it neither too sweet nor bland, adjust as needed.

I would be delighted to know if you have tried this recipe, don’t forget to share your feedback and comments below. If you have any questions, you can e-mail me! I am also available on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter 🙂

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