And most people I speak to feel the same. I have to tell you, I absolutely detest store-bought candied citrus peel. Don’t worry about having to go out and buy some, it is unbelievably quick and easy to make your own (seriously, it takes about 5 minutes).Ĭheck out our recipe for Easy Homemade Marzipan!Ī Word About Store-Bought Candied Citrus Peel (do you hate it as much as I do?) I LOVE the addition of marzipan and it’s one of the most popular varieties of Stollen. It features dried fruits, candied lemon peel, nuts and marzipan (which you can omit if you choose). I’m sharing with you my recipe for Stollen which is thoroughly authentic in its method and ingredients. Thus it is traditionally called Christstollen, or Christ Stollen.
Specifically, being dusted with powdered sugar, it is symbolic of the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes. But there is also religious symbolism behind the stollen with the loaf, or bread, being symbolic of the body of Christ. Some historians believe that the stollen’s characteristic shape was molded after the shape of a mine tunnel, reflective of the silver and tin mining industries of the time. It is also thought it could refer to the entrance of a mine shaft. The word “stollen” refers to a post or boundary stone for a city. The mayor of the city tastes the first piece and the stollen is then cut into thousands of pieces that are sold with the proceeds going to charity. Per tradition, a replica of the original 5-foot long knife is used to slice the stollen. So far 2013 holds the record for the largest Stollen weighing nearly 9400 pounds! Each year a horse-drawn carriage parades the giant stollen through the streets and on to the Christmas market. Also held annually on the Saturday prior to the 2nd Advent is the Dresdner Stollenfest featuring Germany’s largest Christstollen. This market, the Dresdner Striezelmarkt, continues to be held every year. Germany’s first Christmas market was held in Dresden in 1434.
It took a convoy of eight horses to transport the stollen to the king’s table and a 26 pound and 5 1/4 foot-long knife was used to cut it. The stollen weighed 1.8 tons (that’s 3600 pounds!), was 27 feet long and 18 feet wide and a special oven was designed and built just for this purpose. King August II in 1730 commissioned the bakers of Dresden to bake a gigantic stollen in celebration of the strength of the Saxon military, an event to which he invited the dignitaries of Europe in the hope of building allies. The request was denied and then, five popes later, the ban was finally lifted in 1490 via the pope’s famous Butterbrief, “butter letter.”įrom that point the stollen gradually developed into an enjoyable sweet bread incorporating additional ingredients and it become an important symbol of the region. It was in this year that Prince Ernst von Sachsen, at the request of the bakers of Dresden, petitioned the pope to lift the butter ban. And it has come a long way indeed because up until 1650 the stollen was a bland, hard pastry as the use of butter and milk was forbidden during Lent by the Catholic church. Some historians date its origin back to 1329 and over the centuries the stollen was refined to become what it is today. The first and most famous variety of stollen is the Dresdner Christstollen.
Stollen are famously dusted with a thick coat of powdered sugar, reminiscent of the snowy German landscape, and baked with spices conveying the warmth of the Christmas season.Ĭanadastock/ A History of Stollen Variations include Mandelstollen (almond), Mohnstollen (poppy seed), Quarkstollen (quark), Nuss-Stollen (nuts), Butterstollen (high butter content), Dresdner Stollen and Marzipanstollen. I grew up in southern Germany and celebrating the Christmas season without homemade Stollen was simply unthinkable.Ĭhristmas stollen, known in Germany as Christstollen, is a yeast bread that is baked with dried fruits, candied citrus peel, nuts and spices. But perhaps none are revered as highly throughout the world as German Stollen. Examples include fruitcake which is traditional throughout the English speaking nations, panettone in Italy, keks in Poland, julekake in Norway, bolo-rei in Portugal and birnenbrot in Switzerland. Sweet cakes and breads studded with candied fruits and nuts are hallmarks of Christmas baking in many areas of the world. Your search for the BEST authentic German Stollen recipe has ended: Flaky, moist, and divinely flavorful, these homemade German Christmas Stollen are INCREDIBLE! German Stollen have been around for nearly 700 years and are prized throughout the world as one of the most famous and beloved of all Christmas pastries.
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