Christmas classic: the stollen (2024)

FAQs

What does stollen mean in German? ›

Stollen (German: [ˈʃtɔlən] or German: [ʃtɔln]) is a fruit bread of nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit, coated with powdered sugar or icing sugar and often containing marzipan. It is a traditional German Christmas bread.

Christmas classic: the stollen

Oblong in shape and sprinkled with icing sugar, the shape of the traditional German Christmas stollen symbolizes the Child Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. In Germany, the stollen is as much a part of Christmastide as Christmas markets and Christmas trees.

Expensive ingredients like almonds, nuts, raisins, orange peel, essence of rose and rum were imported. Because the coronation occurred during the Christmas season, the bakers shaped the loaves to resemble a baby in swaddling clothes in respect for the Christ Child. Ask any baker: Stollen is a labor of love.

Stollen also has religious symbolism, with the loaf of bread symbolising Christ's body. It represents the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling garments by being coated with powdered sugar. As a result, it is also known as Christ Stollen or Christstollen.

In Germany, fruitcakes (known as Stollen) don't quite resemble their American counterparts. Fruitcake vs. Stollen: Flattened with a chewy crust, Stollen is often baked more like a traditional loaf of sourdough bread.

If stored in a cool and dry place such as a bread box or drawer, your stollen will last for months.

The resulting product, called stollen in it's most generic form, was originally of Jewish origin, and was eaten throughout the Hanukkah season.

Stollen is basically a yeast-based fruit cake with lots of sugar, butter, raisins, rum aroma and powdered sugar. Traditionally there is also high fructose corn sirup involved, so not exactly what you would call a healthy treat (but pretty delicious tbh).

Specially Selected Luxury Topped Stollen 600g | ALDI.

Do you warm up stollen? ›

Traditionally stollen is sliced and served as is with breakfast, although some people prefer to warm individual slices in a toaster or a microwave. Over time, the topping on the stollen may become discolored.

Serve sliced with good coffee, spreading on butter if it seems too dry. It can't be toasted, but a very light microwaving, so it is just warmed, can be very rewarding because the spices are energised to share their fragrances.

In Middle High German, “Strutzel” or “Striezel” referred to a yeast pastry in an elongated, sometimes braided form. It was probably intended as a reminder of the swaddled child in the Christian Christmas story. In some Saxon towns, this “Christbrot” was also called “Stollen” or “Stolle” because of its bead-like body.

Panettone typically contains candied orange peel and raisins; traditional stollen had candied lemon peel and dried cherries as well. The extra fruit and sometimes even a layer of marzipan, plus added milk and flour, contribute to the compact shape of classic stollen versus the loftier panettone.

Think of a Stollen as the love child of a fruit cake and a loaf of bread: it's typically baked from a yeasty dough (replete with dried fruit soaked in rum), then covered in icing sugar. Like you'd expect, you eat a Stollen in slices, often with your coffee or Christmas punch. Some people put butter and jam on it.