Original Dresdner Stollen - Christmas Specialty • MyBestGermanRecipes.com (2024)

FAQs

Why is Christmas stollen so expensive? ›

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.

Dresden Stollen (originally Striezel), a moist, heavy bread filled with fruit, was first mentioned in an official document in 1474, and Dresdner Stollen remains notable and available – amongst other places – at the Dresden Christmas market, the Striezelmarkt.

Traditionally stollen is sliced and served as is with breakfast, although some people prefer to warm individual slices in a toaster or a microwave.

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.

Stollen will last several months if kept covered in a cool, dry place. Stollen loaves are made in early November for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. Stollen loaves will become more moist and flavorful with age.

[ stoh-luhn; German shtaw-luhn ] show ipa. nounGerman Cooking. a sweetened bread made from raised dough, usually containing nuts, raisins, and citron.

Stollen or Christstollen is a tradition dating back to 14th century Germany. Germans baked stollen loaves at Christmas to honor princes and church dignitaries, and to sell at fairs and festivals for holiday celebrations.

Although their different shapes and textures suggest otherwise, panettone (tall and light) and stollen (long and dense) are made from a basic butter- and sugar-enriched yeast dough. Panettone typically contains candied orange peel and raisins; traditional stollen had candied lemon peel and dried cherries as well.

No, generally you do not need to refrigerate or freeze your stollen. If you will not be eating the bread for a few months, you may want to store it in the freezer. Otherwise, storing your stollen at room temperature in a bread box or drawer will allow it to last for months.

Stollen lasts for a while, and the flavors will intensify as they age. Try to eat your stollen within 2 weeks or so for the freshest flavor and texture. If you don't eat your stollen within a 2 weeks, it could dry out.

Is stollen served warm or cold? ›

Stollen is traditionally eaten at room temperature, with slices served either right away or very soon after being cut, but it's not rare to have it slightly warmed as well. In recent years it has become more and more common to have the slices toasted or microwaved before serving the bread.

The most famous Stollen is probably the one made in Dresden (Dresdner Christstollen) first mentioned in the 13th century and only (officially) made by around 120 bakeries in the east German city.

Champagne, prosecco or sekt

And prosecco works well with panettone so should with stollen too.

Germans baked stollen loaves at Christmas to honor princes and church dignitaries, and to sell at fairs and festivals for holiday celebrations.

This traditional German holiday bread was invented long before conventional refrigeration methods existed. As such it is designed to remain fresh and has a long shelf-life.

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).

I make homemade Stollen these days so I haven't tried Aldi Stollen and can't vouch for the taste. But they do have 2 different kinds and I imagine it's pretty good based on the other goodies I've tried.