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 A Christmas stollen | |
| Type | Fruit bread |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Germany |
| Region or state | Saxony |
| Main ingredients | Candied fruit ordried fruit, nuts,spices (cardamom andcinnamon); sugar,powdered sugar oricing sugar |
Stollen (German:[ˈʃtɔlən]ⓘ orGerman:[ʃtɔln]ⓘ) is afruit bread of nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit, coated withpowdered sugar oricing sugar and often containingmarzipan. It is a traditionalGerman Christmas bread. During theChristmas season the cake-like loaves are calledWeihnachtsstollen (after "Weihnachten", the German word for Christmas) orChriststollen (afterChrist). A ring-shaped stollen made in aBundt cake orGugelhupf pan is called aStollenkranz (stollen wreath).
Stollen is a cake-like fruit bread made with yeast, water and flour, and usually withzest added to the dough.Orangeat (candied orange peel) andcandied citrus peel (Zitronat),[1]raisins andalmonds, and various spices such ascardamom andcinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs,[2] vanilla,[3] otherdried fruits and nuts andmarzipan, may also be added to the dough. Except for the fruit added, the dough is quite low in sugar. The finished bread is sprinkled with icing sugar.[4] The traditional weight of a stollen is around 2 kg (4.4 lb), but smaller sizes are common. The bread is slathered with melted unsalted butter and rolled in sugar as soon as it comes out of the oven, resulting in a moister product that keeps better.[5] The marzipan rope in the middle is optional. The dried fruits are macerated in rum or brandy for a superior-tasting bread.
Dresden stollen (originallyStriezel), a moist, heavy bread filled with fruit, was first mentioned in an official document in 1474,[6] andDresdner stollen remains notable[7] and available – amongst other places – at theDresden Christmas market, theStriezelmarkt. Dresden stollen is produced in the city of Dresden and distinguished by a special seal depicting KingAugustus II the Strong. This "official" stollen is produced in only 110 Dresden bakeries.[8]
Early stollen was different from the modern version, with the ingredients being flour, oats and water.[9] As a Christmas bread, stollen was baked for the first time at the Saxon Royal Court in 1427,[10] and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water.
TheAdvent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and hard.[6] In the 15th century, in medieval Saxony (in central Germany, north of Bavaria and south of Brandenburg), thePrince ElectorErnst (1441–1486) and his brotherDukeAlbrecht (1443–1500) decided to remedy this by writing to thePope inRome. TheSaxon bakers needed to use butter, as oil in Saxony was expensive, hard to come by, and had to be made from turnips.[citation needed]
Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455), in 1450[11] denied the first appeal. Five popes died before finally, in 1490,Pope Innocent VIII (1432–1492)[10] sent a letter, known as the "Butter-Letter", to the prince's successor. This granted the use of butter (without having to pay afine), but only for the Prince-Elector and his family and household.[citation needed]
Others were also permitted to use butter, but on the condition of having to pay annually 1/20 of a gold coinGulden to support the building of theFreiberg Minster. The papal restriction on the use of butter was removed whenSaxony becameProtestant.[citation needed]
Over the centuries, the bread changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless "bread" to a sweeter bread with richer ingredients, such asmarzipan, although traditional stollen is not as sweet, light, and airy as the copies made around the world.[citation needed]
In theGDR, Dresden stollen were sent to West Germany as a way of thanking the citizens of West Germany for sending care packets (Westpaket), as they were both available to the GDR citizens and of a high enough standard to be appreciated as gifts.[citation needed]
Commercially made stollen has become a popular Christmas food in Britain in recent decades, complementing traditional dishes such asmince pies andChristmas pudding. All the major supermarkets sell their own versions, many made in Germany, and it is often baked by home bakers.[12]
Every year the Stollenfest takes place in Dresden. This historic tradition ended only in 1918 with the fall of the monarchy,[10] and started again in 1994, but the idea comes from Dresden's history.
Dresden's Christmas market, theStriezelmarkt, was mentioned in the chronicles for the first time in 1474.[10]
The tradition of baking Christmas stollen in Dresden is very old. Christmas stollen in Dresden was already baked in the 15th century.[13]
In 1560, the bakers of Dresden offered the rulers of Saxony Christmas stollen weighing 36 pounds (16 kg) each as gifts, and the custom continued.[10]
Augustus II the Strong (1670–1733) was the Elector of Saxony, King of Poland and theGrand Duke of Lithuania. The king loved pomp, luxury, splendour and feasts. In 1730, he impressed his subjects, ordering the Bakers’ Guild of Dresden to make a giant 1.7-tonne stollen, big enough for everyone to have a portion to eat. There were around 24,000 guests taking part in the festivities on the occasion of the legendary amusement festivity known as Zeithainer Lustlager.[10] For this special occasion, the court architectMatthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (1662–1737), built a particularly oversized stollen oven.[10] An oversized stollen knife was also designed solely for this occasion.[14]
Today, the festival takes place on the Saturday before the second Sunday in Advent, and the cake weighs between three and four tonnes. A carriage takes the cake in a parade through the streets of Dresden to the Christmas market, where it is ceremoniously cut into pieces and distributed among the crowd, in return for a small payment which goes to charity. A special knife, the Grand Dresden Stollen Knife, a silver-plated knife, 1.60 metres (5.2 ft) long weighing 12 kilograms (26 lb), which is a copy of the lost baroque original knife from 1730, is used to cut the oversize stollen at the Dresden Christmas fair.[14]
The largest stollen was baked in 2010 byLidl; it was 72.1 metres (237 ft) long and was certified by theGuinness Book of World Records, at the railway station ofHaarlem.[15]
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