Marion's daughter Lucy sent this recipe for stöllen all the way from Germany.

Ingredients
  1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) flour total
  2 tablespoons (or 2 envelopes) yeast
  400 ml (1-2/3 cups) milk + 1 tablespoon molasses
  4 eggs
  250 grams (1/2 pound) sugar
  375 grams (3/4 pound; 3 sticks) + 4 tablespoons butter
  pinch salt if butter is unsalted
  fruit:
    200 grams of golden or brown raisins (7 oz.)
    200 grams of other candied fruits (7 oz.)
      (Lucy uses candied orange peel and lime peel; I just bought
       a candied fruit mix, not being able to find what she uses.)
    grated zest of one large orange (use microplane)
  nuts:
    250 grams (8 oz.) walnuts or almonds, coarsely chopped
  liquid:
    1/4 cup dark rum or 3/4 cup fruit juice + 1 tablespoon molasses
  powdered sugar

Put fruits and nuts in a bowl, add liquid, stir, cover overnight.

Early in the morning, remove butter and eggs from the refrigerator and
cut the two sticks of butter into pieces. Allow to come up to room temperature.

Sponge:

  Measure out the milk, add molasses, and warm it in the microwave oven for two
  minutes, then pour it into the mixer bowl and measure the temperature. It
  should be between 105°F and 112°F. If too cool, put back into the measuring
  cup and heat more, then return to bowl and again measure temperature. If too
  warm, let sit until it cools. Whisk in yeast and let sit for 3-5 minutes. Stir
  in two cups of the weighed-out flour, then cover with a clean cloth and put in
  a warm draft-free place for 30 minutes. (TIP: turn the oven on for a couple
  minutes then turn it off again; this makes a warm place to let the sponge do
  its thing. If the butter is hard put it in with the sponge for a couple of
  minutes to soften but don't leave it in too long.)

Dough:

  Break the eggs into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk to lightly beat, then add
  sugar and whisk in until smooth.

  Add the egg/sugar mixture to the sponge, then put bowl on mixer with the
  dough hook and begin working in the remaining flour.Once the flour is all
  worked in, knead for 3 minutes. Then add the cut up butter pieces one at a
  time and mix until fully incorporated before adding the next. Continue until
  the butter has all been added and the dough is smooth and pulls away from the
  sides of the bowl. Remove to an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for an hour.
  
  Put the fruit/nut mixture in a strainer over a bowl to drain thoroughly.

  Mix in the fruit/nut mixture until the fruit and nuts are evenly distributed
  and the dough is smooth. Remove dough to a floured board and knead by hand
  until the fruit is evenly distributed.

Loaves:

Set the oven racks at least 4" apart in the middle of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Divide dough into four parts. On a floured board, roll out the dough to make a
long rectangle or oval. Fold the long sides towards the middle so they almost
touch, then tuck the ends underneath. Or, just form them like loaves. Let rise
in a warm place for 30-45 minutes. Put the loaves on two cookie sheets, with
several inches of separation between them. Put one sheet on lower rack and the
other on the upper. Bake for 45-60 minutes, turning and switching racks midway,
until quite brown and a knife comes out clean. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter,
brush over the loaves immediately after being removed from the oven. Remove to
a rack, when cool sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

These loaves can be covered with tin foil and will keep for weeks in a cool
room. Refrigeration is not necessary, just a cool room.

You’re nowhere near done when the loaves come out of the oven--in fact, the
most important step is the last, which I learned when the New York Times’s
steadfast Melissa Clark wrote about her quest to find an old-fashioned stollen
recipe a couple of years ago. The secret to incredible stollen, it turns out,
is not one but two thick coatings of sugar. First, brush the warm loaves
generously with butter. Then sprinkle over a generous quantity of granulated
sugar mixed with a little ground ginger. (The sugar and butter take the
abrasive edge off of the ginger.) Finally, after the loaves have cooled,
sprinkle over an even more generous quantity of powdered sugar. After a
day or so, the sugars and butter will have hardened into an irresistibly
sweet, candy-like shell that not only tastes amazing but also keeps the
heart of the stollen from drying out.