Stollen should taste like sugar sweet almond and butter.
My grandmother and mom were both born and raised in Germany, and every Christmas a staple at the table was stollen, which was handmade by my grandmother and wrapped in tin foil. I have no idea how she made this stollen, which is unlike any other I've ever tasted, because unfortunately my grandmother and mom—holders of the recipe—both passed away at an age where I wasn't quite asking for family recipes yet.
Note: This holiday season, ask your mom/grandma/dad/someone for a family recipe.
Oftentimes, however, all you need in cases like this is memory to recreate a tradition, food or otherwise. Let's begin with the three things that seemed to set my grandmother's stollen apart from others, as far as I can tell:
Stollen in Germany. (Getty)
1) She would wisely exclude any sort of sultanas, currants or raisins, as those dried food particles are disgusting. This made her stollen the Mandelstollen kind, which translates to "almond stollen."
2) She would always put thinly shaved almonds on top, and I imagine inside the stollen as well. Traditionally you would also add candied lemon peel, though I'm not sure if she did.
3) Just after unwrapping the tin foil and serving, she would pour (not delicately brush, POUR) melted butter over the top, then send a flurry of more powdered sugar AND granulated sugar on top of that. There was a buttery crunch coating, as a result—because of this, it didn't quite have that thick film of sugar on top (like all stollens have). Maybe it wasn't as pretty, but it tasted better and kept you from inhaling a tablespoon of powdered sugar when you raised a slice to your mouth.
All the sugar in the world won't cover up those raisins. (Getty)
If you've purchased pre-packaged stollen before it's likely been too dry, but homemade stollen is not like that. However, we're also not dealing with a super moist cake, here, it's more like a soft but dense biscuit, so the addition of the melted butter helps to accent the softness and keep dryness at bay. Also: butter. Have I mentioned one of my first words was "butterbrot," which translates to "bread and butter"?
"Butter melts in a pan as Original Dresden Christmas Stollen is made. Dresden is home to a long Stollen tradition and bakeries must qualify for a 'Golden Seal' in order to call their Stollen 'Dresden Stollen'." (Getty)
Now, here's where memories begin to mingle with each other. Considering we did about 95% of our shopping at the German butcher Karl Ehmer back in those days, I also ate a lot of other German stuff, like marzipan. Some people include marzipan in stollen, and while I know I ate my fair share of the stuff, I'm not sure that my grandmother included it in her recipe—there is a memory of that taste, but it could just be those aforementioned almonds (marzipan is mostly made of almond meal).
Knowing my grandmother, she most likely included it when it happened to be around, but skipped it otherwise. Stollen is all about improvisation (unless you're from Dresden where they have a pretty strict recipe).
There are a lot of ways of making stollen your own (particularly in the spice department), but I think this is the best way to go. When reached for comment this morning, my brother declared that grandma's stollen was "dry and gross," so our memories and/or tastes are at battle here, but in the below recipe you'll find the addition of ricotta cheese, which will keep things light and moist. Also: it's what Martha does.
- 2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup cold butter
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup candied lemon peel
- Powdered and more granulated sugar for topping
- Slivered almonds, also to top the stollen with
This one is adapted from King Arthur Flour's recipe, and you can head over there for very, very details instructions—but basically you want to knead everything together, and bake for about 40 minutes (until lightly browned) at 325°F. To make it your own, keep this in mind:
Spices that work well in stollen include: cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.
Optional additions: Honey, orange zest, and if you must you can add cherries, dried fruits, and raisins, but soak the latter in rum for a few hours first. If you want to add marzipan, roll it up into a log and place in the middle (as shown in the first photo).
And finally, here's my grandmother, setting stollen and other assorted foods out on the Christmas table, listening to Charles Brown:
Next time I'll tell you about the liverwurst and pumpernickel sandwiches I grew up on.
