Schnitzbrot (German Christmas Bread)

Servings:

The name of this bread is pronounced 'shnits brote.' It's a wonderfully dark, fruity bread that can be dusted with confectioners' sugar. Age the loaves 3 days before slicing them, and serve with butter.

Prep
32 min
Cook
143 min
Servings
Difficulty
Hard

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1 Grease a large bowl. Lightly grease three 5 x 9-inch loaf pans. Set aside.
  2. 2 Pour water into another large bowl. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Set aside until mixture becomes creamy, about 15 minutes. Stir in white sugar and 3 cups flour. Mix until well combined.
  3. 3 Add prune juice and mincemeat to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat, and stir in prunes, butter, raisins, walnuts, brown sugar, and salt.
  4. 4 Combine prune mixture with yeast mixture. Gradually stir in remaining 7 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, until well blended to make a moist dough (you may not need all of it). Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and knead into a ball. Transfer to the reserved greased bowl. Cover with a cloth, and place in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
  5. 5 Punch down dough, knead lightly on a floured work surface, and return to the bowl. Allow to rise again, about 1 hour.
  6. 6 Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Punch down and divide into 3 loaves. Place each loaf into a prepared loaf pan. Lightly brush tops of each loaf with 1 teaspoon softened butter. Cover with a clean cloth, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  7. 7 Meanwhile, preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
  8. 8 Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Lower heat to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) and continue to bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of loaves comes out mostly clean, about 30 minutes more. Let cool slightly, remove from pans, and cool on racks.

Nutrition per serving

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