Recipe - Christmas Stollen (Quick-Bread Variety)

2 One half cup Flour (allpurpose)
2 teaspoon Baking powder
Three fourths cup Sugar
One half teaspoon Salt
One half teaspoon Mace
8 x Cardomon seed pods, seeds
Removed and crushed
Three fourths cup Almonds, blanched, ground
One half cup Butter, soft
1 cup Cream cheese, softened
1 lg Egg
One half teaspoon Vanilla extract
One half teaspoon Almond extract
2 tablespoon Brandy
One half cup Currants
One half cup Golden raisins
1/3 cup Candied lemon peel, chopped
One fourth cup Butter, melted
One fourth cup Sugar, powdered

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking powder,
sugar, salt, mace, and crushed cardamon seeds. Stir in the ground almonds.
Cut in the soft butter until the mixture looks something like coarse sand.
In a blender, cream the egg with the cream cheese, vanilla, almond extract,
and brandy. Pour it into a bowl and stir in the dried fruit. Gradually stir
in the flour mixture until everything is is well blended. Work the dough
into a ball and turn it out on a lightly floured board. Knead it for a few
minutes until it is smooth, then place it in the refrigerator for at least
15 minutes. (You can store the dough in the refrigerator for several days,
then take it out to bake when ever you like.) Shape the dough into a flat,
oval loaf, about 10 inches long and eight inches wide. With the blunt edge
of a knife, crease the loaf about One half inch off center, down the length of
it. Fold the smaller side of the creased loaf over the wider side. Brush
the top of the folded loaf with the melted butter. Place the stollen loaf
on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 45 minutes, until it starts
to turn brown on the outside. Remove and allow to cool a little bit. Dust
lightly with powdered (i.e., confectioner's) sugar.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini