Stollen

History

Stollen started as a Christmas bread at the Saxon Royal Court, Dresden in 1427. During those times the nature and quality of the cakes was very different from today. At that time it was made from flour, yeast, some oil and water. You could imagine during this period it was seen as rather bland and tasteless.

However, Dresden was not short of butter and sweeter ingredients, the restrictions forcing bakers to stick to this bland recipe were in place for religious reasons. So, in 1490 the bakers of Dresden wrote to the pope, in what became known as the “butter letter” asking for permission to use their fancier ingredients. The permission was granted and this allowed the Dresden Stollen to evolve into the form that it is today.

Oma And Tradition

My maternal oma and opa immigrated to Australia in the 1950’s, only a decade after WW2. You could imagine that it was not always the easiest for German immigrants to move to an allied country. For a series of reasons they decided not to keep to many German traditions or german-ness at all, not passing on the language being particularly painful for me. But! One tradition that did live on was the Christmas Stollen. It is something I remember happening every year, without fail, for Christmas. Oma and my Aunts would bake about a dozen each. They would then give away their lovingly baked goods to family and friends as advent gifts. We would usually eat stollen through December and into the new year for breakfast.

After my oma took an unexpected trip to the hospital this year (she made a full recovery), I decided it was time that I learnt this tradition from her. I organised some time in Australia (I currently live in Paris), and asked her to hold off baking until I could get there. The day had finally arrived, and on the 12th of December 2018 I finally learnt the family tradition I hold most dear. I had a lot of fun learning all the tips and tricks and how she got to the recipe described in this post after decades of experimentation. When I mentioned I wanted to document this recipe and publish a post online for posterity, she told me to note that the recipe is NOT perfected. In her mind there are core concepts central to stollen, but one should always evolve and experiment. So what follows is the recipe she has as of 2018, you are invited to experiment and evolve this recipe as you find fit, based on local availability and personal preferences.

Recipe

The following recipe is a quark based stollen as opposed to yeast based. Usually stollen will contain Marzipan at the centre, this recipe uses something more akin to an almond paste.

The recipe produces 4 loaves.

Ingredients

If you can not recognise an ingredient, I have provided some reference images at the bottom. I hope they can help 😋

Dough

• Flour (1kg)
• Mixed Dried Fruit (450 gm)
• Sugar (250 gm)
• Butter (300 gm)
• Cottage Cheese or Quark (500 gm)
• Eggs (4)
• 2 Packets of Baking Powder (2 very flat table spoons)
• 2 packets of Vanilla Sugar (2 very flat table spoons)
• Chopped Almonds (250 gm)
• Ground Cardamom (1/2 teaspoons)
• Ground Cinnamon (1/2 teaspoons)
• Mace (husk of the nutmeg seed) (1/8 teaspoon)
• Ground Clove (1/8 teaspoon)
• 1 vial of bitter almond essence (1 teaspoon)

Almond Paste

• 200 gm almond meal
• 200 gm icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1 vial of bitter almond essen

Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• dash of milk

Icing

• Icing Sugar
• Rum, Brandy or Whiskey
• Butter

Method

The Dough

1. First cream (whip well) the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar
2. Transfer to a large mixing machine (like a MixMaster), while mixing add one egg at a time.
3. Add everything else except the flour and keep the mixer going.
4. Add the flour 250 gm at a time until everything is mixed well.
5. Knead the dough as necessary (until everything is mixed in)
6. Split into four even parts
7. Put all the parts in the fridge to settle for 30 minutes

The Almond Paste

1. Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix by hand
2. The mixture should be brittle, but it should hold together
3. Split into four even cylindrical parts

Egg Wash

1. Add egg and dash of milk and whip together

Putting it Together

For each piece of dough repeat the following

1. Take a rolling pin and flatten into slightly oval shapes.
2. Take one of the pieces of almond paste and place slightly towards one of the ends of the long side of the oval.
3. Role the stollen over so the almond paste is contained and use the egg wash to seal the last fold.

Once folded it should look similar to this:

(I apologise for the quality of the photos, next year I will update them)

Baking

1. Pre-heat a fan forced oven to 180º C
2. Bake at 180º for 55–65 minutes
3. As soon as the oven is finished, take stollen out and place on individual sheets of foil.

Icing

1. Generously coat the stollen in about 1/2–1 glass of rum
2. Generously coat the stollen in melted butter, we usually brush this on to get an even coat
3. Sprinkle icing sugar all over
4. Wrap the stollen in foil and leave to mature for a couple of days before serving.

Enjoy!

Fresh out of the oven!

Pour on some rum!

Apply Icing Sugar

Images of Ingredients For Reference

When taking these images I did not intend for them to be published, it is also holiday season so I don’t feel I want to spend the time retaking them. So I apologise for the lack of quality 😜

Mixed Fruit

Cottage Cheese

Baking Powder packets

Vanilla Sugar

Chopped Almonds

Ground Cardamon

Mace

Ground Clove

Vile of Bitter Almond Essence