Could my Christmas nemesis actually be tasty? We'll see.
Growing up, Christmas morning meant having stollen. While the memory of such won’t send a shiver down my spine as, say, trying to force myself to eat just one more bite of Brussels sprouts (bitter is not my forte) would, it also isn’t something I ever looked forward to.
Ok, perhaps that’s not entirely true. Some years, I would somehow forget just what stollen tasted like and sit down at Christmas breakfast excited to have a slice. It sounded good…in theory. But one bite and all the memories came rushing back like an avalanche on an unexpected skier. There I was, fighting to get this stuff out of my mouth as fast as possible. Or, at least, not take another bite.
It’s not that stollen, a German fruitcake, is bad. If it were, it wouldn’t have remained a Christmas staple for over 600 years. Here’s the tale.
As legend goes, the pastry, which hails from the city of Naumburg, Germany, was baked for a competition held by the Bishop in 1329 and was made to resemble Jesus in his swaddling clothes. However, because of the ban on not just eating but using butter, eggs, and milk (among other ingredients) during the four-week fast held by Christians during the Advent season that ends at Christmas, the cake was baked with oats, flour, water, and turnip oil. Those eating it back then would have certainly wished for today’s stollen!
Once the so-called “butter ban” was finally lifted in 1491 by Pope Innozenz VIII, the recipe started to spread across Germany and it especially became a staple within homes in Dresden after the town’s bakers put their town on the map when they delivered a 36 pound loaf to the king of Saxony. To this day, despite the town’s small population of 4500, there are said to be some 150 bakeries specializing in the cake as they’re known around the world as the place for great stollen.
So, how does one go about making stollen? In my research, I’ve discovered that there are stollens heavy on nuts or on butter (they’re still making up for lost time) or on almonds. There’s even one that features a cheese curd known as quark. My family must go for the almond-friendly recipe as that’s the flavor that I always remember (and don’t enjoy). So, perhaps if I toned that down I might enjoy the cake. But, before I go experimenting, let me deliver the official recipe for Dresden Stollen (the bakers ship worldwide):
Dresden Stollen:
Ingredients:
Makes six four-pound loaves.
4000 gram wheat flour (preferably “Metze” though I’m not sure what this is. If you do, please comment and let me know!)
1600 gram butter
500 gram butter lard
600 gram preserving sugar
750 gram sweet almonds, pulverized
250 gram bitter almonds, pulverized
600 gram candied lemon peel
3000 gram seedless raisins
1000 gram milk
250 gram yeast
50 gram salt
100 gram orange peel
10 gram mace
300 gram rum
1 gram vanilla pod
Traditional Steps (according to Lenelies Pause):
““The history tells, they don’t used milk, they better took the rich cream, 2 cans, full, directly from a farmer. It is the speech of a “Metze” (4 kilogram) dusty wheaten flour. This “Metze” devours desirous 2 kilogram of the best butter, snatch 3 kilogram seedless raisins with themselves, satisfied themselves with 1 kilogram almonds. It desires an hand full with bitter glassy candied lemon peel, planed orange peel, takes also a breath mace – rubbed soft over a peace of sugar with powerless hand -, demands a charge of the good old Arrak and takes the sugar not in the modern crystallized form, but after the good old tradition as an hat which is packed in blue paper, and then also only mortared, sifted and on the lemon rubbed off. The Stollen is an unready children only mixed, formed and baked. With 1000 gram melted hot butter the stollen will be slowly and softly touched und steeped, sugar, smells like vanilla, sinks up like a snow clouds, till it finally carried home, with a sweet aroma, which march through the whole city in the days before Christmas and all bakeries, which breathes out of all corridors.”
“New” Recipe by Dan Lepard (This is the recipe I might be trying this holiday season):
Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup + 2 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cardamom, ground
1/2 tsp mace, ground
1/2 tsp clove, ground
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried currants
1/2 cup candied citron
4 tsp instant yeast
2/3 cup whole milk
3 tbsp whole wheat flour
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp unsalted butter melted and cooled
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 tbsp dark rum
finely grated lemon zest from one lemon
1 8-inch stick of marzipan (250grams worth)
melted butter and confectioner’s sugar for finishing.
Steps:
1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, spices, fruits, and yeast until combined.
2. Bring milk and whole wheat flour just to a boil in a small saucepan.
3. Pour milk mixture into bowl. Add melted butter and combine. Add eggs, rum, lemon zest.
4. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and work until just combined well enough to hold together.
5. Let it rest for 10 minutes
6. Knead the dough for 1 to 2 minutes
7. Allow it to rest, under a tea towel, for 90 minutes.
8. Knead it again lightly to deflate it a little.
9. Roll it into an 8 x10″ shape and lay the log of marzipan in the center, longways. Roll the dough over the marzipan to seal it into the center.
10. Once the loaf has doubled in size, place it into a 360-degree oven.
11. Bake for 35 minutes.
12. Coat with melted butter and sift the top confectioner’s sugar.