If you’ve never baked a traditional Christmas Stollen before, this is the year to try — and making it with sourdough takes it to a whole new level of flavor and texture.
This Sourdough Stollen with Homemade Marzipan is rich, buttery, slightly tangy, and filled with fragrant dried fruit, citrus peel, and a sweet almond center. It’s one of those breads that fills your kitchen with the warm smell of Christmas.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Homemade marzipan — soft, fresh, and much better than store-bought.
Perfect for gifting — it stays fresh for weeks and even tastes better after resting.
Full of holiday flavor — cardamom, cinnamon, orange zest, and rum-soaked fruit.

This sourdough stollen tastes even more amazing after a few days as the flavors deepen, making it the perfect make-ahead holiday treat. Plus I show how to turn it into even more amazing crisps like Nonnis THINaddictives Cranberry Almond Crisps.

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What Is Stollen?

Stollen (also known as Christstollen) is a traditional German Christmas bread.
It’s rich and buttery, filled with dried fruits, candied citrus peel, and marzipan, then coated in powdered sugar to look like a snowy loaf.

Classic stollen uses yeast, but in this recipe, the dough is leavened with active sourdough starter, which adds a gentle tang and improves the texture and keeping quality.

Tools You’ll Need

You don’t need anything fancy to make this stollen, just a few kitchen basics:

Large mixing bowl – for mixing your dough and folding in the fruit.
Small bowl – to soak the dried fruits overnight.
Wooden spoon or silicone spatula – for stirring and mixing.
Kitchen scale – for accuracy (especially important in sourdough baking).
Clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap – to cover the dough during rising.
Parchment paper – to line your baking sheet and prevent sticking.
Baking sheet – for baking the stollen.
Pastry brush – to coat the loaf with melted butter after baking.
Cooling rack – to cool the stollen evenly before wrapping.

Optional but helpful:

Digital thermometer – to check for doneness (stollen is ready when the center reaches about 200°F / 94°C).
Bench scraper – makes shaping and cleanup much easier.

Ingredients You’ll Need

Fruit Mix

You’ll need a mix of dried fruits for that classic stollen flavor — raisins or golden raisins, a few chopped dried apricots or cranberries, candied orange and lemon peel (you can make some at home), and some fresh orange zest. A splash of rum or orange juice helps soften the fruit and gives it a wonderful aroma.

Dough

The dough is enriched and soft, made with active sourdough starter, warm milk, butter, sugar, and an egg. A blend of all-purpose and bread flour gives it structure while keeping it tender. It’s lightly sweetened and spiced with vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, and a touch of nutmeg. Once the dough is ready, you’ll fold in the soaked fruit for little bursts of flavor in every bite.

Homemade Marzipan

For the marzipan center, you’ll make it from scratch using almond flour and powdered sugar. A bit of almond extract and lemon juice bring out that sweet, nutty flavor, while a spoonful of egg white or water helps bind everything into a smooth, soft dough. It’s much fresher and softer than store-bought marzipan.

Finishing Touch

After baking, the loaf gets brushed with melted butter and dusted generously with powdered sugar — this gives stollen its signature snowy look and keeps it tender for days.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Sourdough Stollen with Marzipan

1. Soak the Fruit

Start by preparing your fruit mix. In a bowl, combine your raisins, chopped apricots (or cranberries), candied orange and lemon peel, fresh orange zest, and a splash of rum or orange juice.
Give everything a good stir, cover the bowl, and let it sit overnight. This allows the fruit to plump up and soak in all that delicious citrus and spice flavor — a little step that makes a big difference in the final bread.

2. Make the Marzipan

While the fruit is soaking, make the marzipan filling. Stir together almond flour and powdered sugar, then add a little almond extract, lemon juice, and just enough water to bring it all together into a soft dough.
Knead until smooth, wrap it tightly, and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake. Homemade marzipan is so fresh and aromatic — it’s a must for truly special stollen.

Almond flour with powdered sugar to make homemade marzipan roll.

3. Mix the Dough

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your active sourdough starter, warm milk, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Then add the flour, salt, and warm spices — cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Mix everything into a soft dough, then knead in the butter until smooth and elastic. Once the dough feels silky and stretchy, gently fold in the soaked fruit. You’ll see little specks of orange, gold, and ruby throughout — it already smells like Christmas!

Sourdough stollen bread dough with dried fruit in a large mixing bowl.

Sourdough stollen bread dough in a large mixing bowl.

4. Bulk Fermentation

Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm, cozy spot until it’s light and puffy. This can take several hours, depending on your kitchen temperature.
If you’d like to break up the process, you can refrigerate the dough after a few hours of rising and continue the next day — the cold fermentation adds even more flavor.

5. Shape the Stollen

Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into an oval.

Roll your chilled marzipan into a log and place it down the center of the dough.

Fold one side over the marzipan, leaving a little edge to create that classic stollen shape.
Transfer it to a parchment-lined baking sheet with the seam side down.

6. Proof

Cover your shaped loaf and let it rest until slightly puffy and soft to the touch. Depending on your schedule, you can let it proof at room temperature for a couple of hours or refrigerate it overnight for a slow, flavorful rise.

7. Bake

When the dough is ready, preheat your oven and bake the stollen until it’s golden brown and your kitchen smells heavenly. The loaf should feel firm and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Let it cool for a few minutes, then brush it generously with melted butter and shower it in powdered sugar — this gives it that signature snowy finish and helps seal in the moisture.

8. Rest

As tempting as it is to slice right in, stollen is best when it rests for a few days. Wrap the cooled loaf tightly in parchment and foil, and store it at room temperature.
During this time, the flavors blend beautifully, and the texture becomes rich, soft, and perfectly sliceable.

Storage & Serving

Stollen keeps beautifully!

Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 2 weeks.
Freeze for up to 3 months.
Dust with more powdered sugar before serving if needed.

Serve slices slightly warmed, with butter, tea, or coffee for a cozy holiday breakfast.

How to Turn Stollen into Crispy Thin Slices

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with leftover stollen (or if you just love crunchy treats), try this simple twist — crispy stollen slices! These are buttery, lightly sweet, and so addictive, almost like biscotti or twice-baked cookies.

Here’s how to make them:

Let the stollen firm up.
It’s easiest to slice after a day or two, once the loaf has settled and slightly dried.
Slice very thinly.
Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the stollen into super thin slices — about ¼ inch (or even thinner if you can manage).
Arrange on a baking sheet.
Lay the slices flat on a parchment-lined tray. You can brush them lightly with melted butter for extra flavor, or leave them plain for a lighter crunch.
Bake until crisp.
Bake at a low temperature, around 300°F (150°C), for 10–15 minutes per side, until golden and crisp. Keep an eye on them — they go from perfect to overdone quickly!
Cool and enjoy.
Let them cool completely on a rack. They’ll crisp up even more as they cool.

These crunchy stollen slices are amazing with tea or coffee — and they make a beautiful homemade gift. Store them in an airtight jar or tin, and they’ll stay fresh and crisp for a week or more.

Recipe Tips

Brown your butter before adding for a deeper nutty aroma.
Use rum for soaking the fruit for a more authentic flavor.
Make mini loaves for gifts — they bake faster and look adorable wrapped in parchment with twine.

A Few Words from My Kitchen

It took me years to get brave enough to bake my first stollen — and I wish I’d done it sooner. The sourdough version feels extra special: the dough is soft, fragrant, and forgiving, and the homemade marzipan makes it taste truly homemade.
Now I bake one (or three!) every December to share with family and friends.

If you love sourdough and holiday baking, this is a recipe you’ll want to make part of your yearly tradition.

If you tried this recipe and love it, please come back and give it a review or a comment. Tag me on IG @shakanranch

Sourdough Stollen with Homemade Marzipan

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Prep Time 45

Cook Time 40

Ferment 6

Total Time 7 25