Kerstol

Nostalgia time. Memories of working with my dad in the bakery from the time I was 11 or 12. Especially memories of baking Dutch special items for Christmas or Kerstmis. Especially Kerststol. Now I have tried this before, but that was probably 20 years or more ago, and then I used a German  style recipe, not the Dutch yeast variety.

Found a couple of appropriate recipes on line and decided to use one from The Dutch Table website. Soaked the fruit overnight, and made the bread, quite the way my dad might, although I do not remember him adding egg and melted butter to his dough. The results tastes fine, but is closer to the German Style than I would like to recreate. Also, I ended up use almond paste that I bought. It was not a grainy as the paste usually found in Kerstol, closer to marzipan. Mistake, since the higher sugar content means that it starts to melt and run out as the bread is baking. Not all of course, but it does provide that roll of almond paste in the finished bread that you can spread on a slice. Oh well, next time, I will have to make almond paste from scratch.