Bremer Klaben

It is the one that is not dusted with sugar afterwards, and that is the stated difference.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

• 500 g plain flour
• 7 g dried yeast
• 60 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250 g butter, softened
• about 120 ml milk, warm
• 700 g raisins
• 100 g candied orange peel, chopped
• 100 g candied lemon peel, chopped
• 100 g almonds, chopped
• 4 tablespoons rum

Method

1. IT IS THE ONE THAT IS NOT DUSTED WITH SUGAR AFTERWARDS, AND THAT IS THE STATED DIFFERENCE. The article names it as such: A FEATURE THAT DISTINGUISHES IT FROM STOLLEN IS THAT IT IS NOT DUSTED WITH POWDERED SUGAR AFTER BAKING.
2. WHICH MATTERS BECAUSE THAT FINISH IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE OTHER ONE. Stollen, as on its own page, is buttered and rolled in sugar the instant it leaves the oven, and that shell is what makes it keep. Klaben goes without it and keeps for months anyway -- the article gives A SHELF LIFE OF SEVERAL MONTHS -- because the keeping is done by the fruit and the butter instead.
3. AND THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF FRUIT. The article's comparison is blunt: MORE RAISINS THAN AN ORDINARY FRUIT CAKE. Seven hundred grams to five hundred of flour, so the dough is barely holding them.
4. IT IS A BREAD AND IT IS CALLED ONE. A TYPE OF STOLLEN from Bremen, A BREAD OF SORTS MADE WITH DRIED FRUIT (ESPECIALLY RAISINS), FLOUR, BUTTER, SUGAR, ORANGE AND LEMON PEEL, RUM, ALMONDS, YEAST AND SALT.
5. BAKE IT A FORTNIGHT BEFORE YOU WANT IT, which the article recommends outright: IT IS SAID THAT BREMER KLABEN TASTES ESPECIALLY GOOD WHEN IT IS BAKED TWO WEEKS BEFORE SERVING. Nothing is done to it in that fortnight; it is wrapped and left alone.
6. SOAK THE FRUIT IN THE RUM OVERNIGHT. With this much fruit in this little dough, dry raisins would take their water straight out of the crumb.
7. MAKE A STIFF DOUGH AND GIVE IT A LONG RISE. Half a kilo of butter-heavy dough carrying a kilo of fruit is slow -- two hours at least.
8. THE FRUIT GOES IN AFTER THE FIRST RISE, WORKED IN BY HAND. Kneaded from the start it tears the gluten and the loaf cannot hold its own weight.
9. SHAPE IT AS A PLAIN LOAF, NOT A FOLDED ONE. There is no marzipan rope in this and nothing to fold around.
10. A HUNDRED AND FIFTY DEGREES FOR AN HOUR AND A QUARTER, covered once it colours. Low and slow: the sugar in a kilo of fruit burns long before the middle is done. Then wrap it, and wait. It has held a protected designation of origin since December 2009, alongside Aachener Printen as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes