Stollen -- discovering a german christmas cake tradition abroad

we never have been much of a Stollen family -- "Stollen" meaning the bread-like cake filled with almonds, dried fruit, raisins, and currents inside and decorated with molten butter and powdered sugar on the outside. Stollen is one of the christmas specialities in germany and cities like dresden or nürnberg pride themselves with original recipes for the dense rich loaves.

we never have been much of a Stollen family because my grandmother would prepare home-made Apfelstrudel. for my u.s. americans, think of a big nut roll with an extended filling of butter-roasted breadcrumbs, almonds, raisins, and lots of grated apples that have to be of different varieties.

nevertheless, as german tradition demands, Stollen has to be on the table for gatherings in the Adventszeit, the Advent season anticipating christmas eve. commercially produced ones appeared on ours.

every year since i have moved to ohio, a Stollen was sent over the ocean to be shared with my u.s. americans. inspired by another two baby Stollen that arrived at the right time this year, we decided to bake one ourselves. i was excited as always when doing something german or something new. now i could combine the two following a new tradition of producing german food favorites that i had never made from scratch in germany before but couldn´t find ready-made in the united states (think Quark, Pudding, or Klöße).

missing a family tradition to fall back onto we downloaded a recipe for a Dresdner Stollen. a christmas elf helped us with the dough. that`s where the story begins of how to make a fancy brick -- the way the supposed Stollen unfortunately turned out.

















the dough is quite heavy with lots of butter but no eggs. you might find the absence of eggs curious but the more interesting fact is the presence of butter. originally the loaf was meant to be a food for fasting with only flour, yeast, and water as base ingredients.only with the Butterbrief of 1491, a papal permit allowing butter in the dough, the Stollen morphed into the richness we know it now according to the official website of the Dresdner Stollen (available in english and german by the way).














as written above we joined the christmas elf when it came to the fun part of kneading the remaining ingredients into the dough such as currants [Korinthen].














strong hands folded them in followed by Orangeat [candied orange peel], Zitronat [candied lemon peel], and a mix of dried candied fruit pieces. i imported the little boxes a while ago as they are not common in the united states. we trusted that all the sugar in them would preserve them a bit longer than the expiration date indicated.















almonds are another part of the filling for the loaf, that according to legend is symbolic for baby jesus wrapped in a white blanket.














what a beauty! the dough tastes delicious. i and my favorite american probably ate a cup of dough speckled with nuts and raisins each before it went into the oven. we were thinking of starting another ice cream edition. instead of the prevalent variety in the united states of cookie dough ice cream, we will have Stollen dough next.











we tried to shape it into a loaf folding over one side. despite adding aluminum foil on top after a while and repeated knife stabs to test is dough-iness inside, we got it all wrong.














after 80 minutes in roughly 180 degree celsius [350 degree fahrenheit], a visually acceptable bread with a one centimeter rock hard bottom and dry yellow innards encased by a solid browned crust came out.














lucky enough the christmas elf had prepared a second batch of dough following another recipe out of a u.s. cook book. may i introduce you to the perfect home-made Stollen with a moist soft sweet inside and crisp powder-sugared skin as seen above?. mmh, want a slice of German christmas?

honestly, it would be great if a couple of my dear german readers could dig around in their family cook books to supply me a secret recipe for a successful Stollen. anyone?