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Dessert

Almond Stollen

A sweet almond loaf made with a standard dough, sweet and bitter almonds, zwieback, and iced after baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Stollen

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Prepare the standard dough mixture, omitting any fruit.

  2. Incorporate 2 pounds of sweet almonds and 4 ounces of zwieback.

  3. Add 83 bitter almonds, blanched and finely chopped.

  4. Knead the dough until firm, adding more flour as needed.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into a loaf and place on a baking sheet.

  2. Brush the top with an egg wash before baking.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Ice and serve

  1. Once baked, ice the stollen while still warm.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main nutty body and bulk of the crumb.
Zwieback
Adds dry crumb structure and absorbs moisture, giving the dough body.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a concentrated almond aroma and flavour.
Egg
Brushed on as a wash, it promotes browning and a glossy golden crust.

The step that matters

Knead the dough until firm, adding more flour as needed. Almonds and zwieback add oil and dry crumb that change the dough's hydration. Adding flour gradually lets the dough firm up without becoming stiff, so the loaf holds its shape and bakes evenly.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Milletfits about as well
  3. Macadamia nutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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