Stollen (2024)

FAQs

What does the stollen symbolize? ›

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.

Dough that has expired yeast, too much salt, all-purpose or cake flour, or antifungal spices like cinnamon might have trouble rising.

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.

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.

Culinary historians trace the first iteration of stollen—created as a Catholic offering during the liturgical season of Advent leading up to Christmans—to 1329, in the German city of Naumburgh an der Saale (near modern-day Leipzig) in Saxony (Central Germany).

Stollen's origin dates back to 15th-century Germany, a time when culinary traditions were deeply intertwined with religious practices. Originally made from simple ingredients due to church-imposed fasting, it has evolved, mirroring the changing tides of history.

Certainly. Many people prefer to warm individual slices of stollen in the toaster or microwave before eating. What are the brown spots in the sugar coating on top of my stollen? Our raisins and citron are marinated overnight before being baked in our bread.

Stollen is a kind of fruit bread, made from a leavened dough, containing almonds, raisins, and special spices, and coated in powdered sugar. Many stollen bakers in Dresden also include a bit of alcohol, although there are also alcohol-free varieties which include marzipan and chocolate, for example.

Minimum shelf life from purchase:

Almond stollen: at least 6 weeks. Marzipanstollen: at least 6 weeks. Poppy seed cake: at least 2 weeks. Poppy seed striezel: at least 2 weeks.

Do Jews eat stollen? ›

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).

Stollen History

The Bishop enjoyed the stollen so much that he ordered a quantity of grain saved for stollen only. Stollen at that time were baked in loaves weighing 30 pounds. Stollen became such a part of Dresdeners' lives that it was cut and served with special, stollen only utensils.

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.

Stollen is a delicacy typical for the region. It symbolises the baby Jesus wrapped in white swaddling. The cake was a nutritious sweet treat in poorer times and is still a wonderful Christmas dessert today. Sultanas, almonds, butter, candied lemon peel…

Spelling is important — case in point, stolen vs. stollen bread. While the former refers to a loaf that someone has, er, omitted to pay for (thus passing the cost on to the rest of us shoppers in the form of a price increase), the latter is a tasty German Christmas treat.

Stollen is really an all-purpose holiday treat. You could pull it out after a meal for a festive punctuation to supper when you don't want something too sweet.