stollen

Stollen is a cake-like fruit bread made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Orangeat (candied orange peel) and candied citrus peel (Zitronat),Duden: Zi|tro|nat, das raisins and almonds, and various spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs,Recipe for Dresdner Weihnachtsstollen Mimi Sheraton, The German Cookbook, from Random House vanilla,{{cite web|url=http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte02b.htm|title=Learning and Teaching German| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325170601/http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte02b.htm| archive-date=2017-03-25}} other dried fruits and nuts and marzipan, 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.{{cite web| url=https://viewegerback.de/produkt-kategorie/weihnachtsstollen/| title= Christstollen| language=de}} The traditional weight of a stollen is around {{convert|2|kg|abbr=on}}, 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/15/how-to-bake-the-perfect-stollen|title=How to bake the perfect stollen|author=Felicity Cloak |author-link=Felicity Cloake |newspaper=The Guardian|date=15 December 2016|access-date=31 May 2017}} The marzipan rope in the middle is optional. The dried fruits are macerated in rum or brandy for a superior-tasting bread.

Dresden stollen (originally Striezel), a moist, heavy bread filled with fruit, was first mentioned in an official document in 1474,{{cite web|url=http://www.dresden.de/dmg/en/press_service/press_texts_in_various_languages/english/c_33_recipes_for_dresden_christstollen.php|title=City of Dresden - Tourism - The original Dresden Stollen|date=22 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122061616/http://www.dresden.de/dmg/en/press_service/press_texts_in_various_languages/english/c_33_recipes_for_dresden_christstollen.php|archive-date=2009-01-22}} and Dresdner stollen remains notable[http://lexikon.meyers.de/meyers/Stollen Meyers Lexikon] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091231030722/http://lexikon.meyers.de/meyers/Stollen |date=2009-12-31 }}: "Besonders bekannt ist der Dresdner Stollen" ("the Dresden Stollen is especially well-known") and available – amongst other places – at the Dresden Christmas market, the Striezelmarkt. Dresden stollen is produced in the city of Dresden and distinguished by a special seal depicting King Augustus II the Strong. This "official" stollen is produced in only 110 Dresden bakeries.{{cite web| url=https://www.dresdnerstollen.com/de/schutzverband/stollenbaecker|title=Schutzverband Dresdner Christstollen e. V.| language=de}}

File:Stollen with candied fruits.jpg

Early stollen was different from the modern version, with the ingredients being flour, oats and water.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070611132501/http://www.medgesch.uni-hd.de/PDF/WH-476.pdf Von Gänsen, Karpfen, Lebkuchen und Stollen] Dtsch Med. Wochenschrift 2003;128: 2691–2694 (p. 4) As a Christmas bread, stollen was baked for the first time at the Saxon Royal Court in 1427,{{cite web|url=http://www.stollen-online.de/dresdnerstollen/geschichte-eng.htm|title=The History of the Christ Stollen from Dresden - Bäckerei & Konditorei Gnauck|first=Bäckerei & Konditorei Gnauck UG|last=(haftungsbeschränkt)|website=Bäckerei & Konditorei Gnauck}} and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water.

The Advent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and hard. In the 15th century, in medieval Saxony (in central Germany, north of Bavaria and south of Brandenburg), the Prince Elector Ernst (1441–1486) and his brother Duke Albrecht (1443–1500) decided to remedy this by writing to the Pope in Rome. The Saxon bakers needed to use butter, as oil in Saxony was expensive, hard to come by, and had to be made from turnips.{{citation needed|date = October 2023}}

Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455), in 1450{{cite web| url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety-and-quality/certification/quality-labels/eu-quality-food-and-drink/dresdner-christsollen-pgi_en |title=Origins}} denied the first appeal. Five popes died before finally, in 1490, Pope Innocent VIII (1432–1492) sent a letter, known as the "Butter-Letter", to the prince's successor. This granted the use of butter (without having to pay a fine), but only for the Prince-Elector and his family and household.{{citation needed|date = October 2023}}

Others were also permitted to use butter, but on the condition of having to pay annually 1/20 of a gold coin Gulden to support the building of the Freiberg Minster. The papal restriction on the use of butter was removed when Saxony became Protestant.{{citation needed|date = October 2023}}

Over the centuries, the bread changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless "bread" to a sweeter bread with richer ingredients, such as marzipan, although traditional stollen is not as sweet, light, and airy as the copies made around the world.{{citation needed|date = October 2023}}

In the GDR, 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|date = October 2023}}

Commercially made stollen has become a popular Christmas food in Britain in recent decades, complementing traditional dishes such as mince pies and Christmas pudding. All the major supermarkets sell their own versions, many made in Germany, and it is often baked by home bakers.[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/25/christmas-taste-test-stollen Jay Rayner: Christmas taste test: stollen]

Image:Louis de Silvestre-August II.jpg]]

Every year the Stollenfest takes place in Dresden. This historic tradition ended only in 1918 with the fall of the monarchy, and started again in 1994, but the idea comes from Dresden's history.

Dresden's Christmas market, the Striezelmarkt, was mentioned in the chronicles for the first time in 1474.

The tradition of baking Christmas stollen in Dresden is very old. Christmas stollen in Dresden was already baked in the 15th century.{{Cite book|title = German Cuisine, Past and Present|last = Kagachi|first = Chihiro|year = 1958}}

In 1560, the bakers of Dresden offered the rulers of Saxony Christmas stollen weighing {{convert|36|lb|kg}} each as gifts, and the custom continued.

Augustus II the Strong (1670–1733) was the Elector of Saxony, King of Poland and the Grand 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. For this special occasion, the court architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (1662–1737), built a particularly oversized stollen oven. An oversized stollen knife was also designed solely for this occasion.[http://www.stollenfest.com/knife.php Stollen knife] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217145041/http://www.stollenfest.com/knife.php |date=2006-02-17 }}

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, {{convert|1.60|m|ft}} long weighing {{convert|12|kg|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.

File:Großes Dresdner Stollenmesser Nachbildung 2011.JPG

The largest stollen was baked in 2010 by Lidl; it was {{convert|72.1|m|ft}} long and was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, at the railway station of Haarlem.{{cite web |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-christmas-stollen |title=Longest Christmas stollen |publisher=Guinness World Records |access-date=2017-12-13}}

Rosinen-Christstollen angeschnitten.jpg|Christmas stollen with raisins

StollenSide.jpg|A stollen, close up detail

2016 1221 Kerststol.jpg|A Dutch Kerststol with an almond paste filling

Mohnstollen.JPG|Stollen made with poppy seed paste

Stollen-w.jpg|Sliced stollen on a plate

Loaves of stollen.jpg|Loaves of stollen

Stollen de Magmot.jpg|Stollen

Mini Marzipan Stollen (Detail).jpg|Mini Marzipan Stollen

Cut stollen on wooden board.jpg|Cut stollen on wooden board

Stollen with candied fruits and nuts.jpg|Plaited stollen (Strietzel) with candied fruits and nuts (before baking)

Stollen-how-to.jpg|Making stollen

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• [http://www.stollenfest.com/ Dresden Stollen Festival]
• [http://www.ottawa.diplo.de/en/ega__Dresdner_Stollen.html Dresden stollen history], in English from the Germany Embassy in Canada

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Category:Sweet breads

Category:Dresden

Category:Christmas food

Category:Christmas in Germany

Category:German desserts

Category:Saxon cuisine

Category:German breads

Category:Christian cuisine

Category:Yeast cakes