The Christmas season has arrived and it’s time we keep everything aside and start getting ready for this beautiful time of the year. Every country has their own way of celebrating this season with special feasts. Germans indulge in the festivity by getting a taste of their own fruit bread popularly known as Stollen. It is a decadent fruit bread that is made with loads of crunchy nuts, spices, candied or dried fruits that is perfectly coated powdered sugar and then baked to perfection. It is made with one rich ingredient that is Marzipan. Stollen is a traditional German bread that is mainly savoured during the joyous Christmas time. During the Christmas season, Germans call it by two different names. One is Weihnachts Stollen, a name derived from a German word for Christmas and while the other name is Christstollen
History of this traditional Christmas Bread:
This fruit bread has been through quite a journey. Stollen was different when it was first made as ingredients like flour, oats and water were combined. As a Christmas bread, stollen was baked for the first time in the year 1545 with the use of flour, yeast, oil and water. Once during the advent season, which was a time of fasting, bakers were prohibited to use butter and were instructed to use oil only, which resulted in the cake being hard and tasteless. After this, the Prince Elector Ernst and his brother decided to remedy this by writing to the Pope in Rome. The bakers needed to use butter to make bread with oil as it was expensive and spoiled the texture of it too. The first letter was denied but soon after he sent a letter to the prince that granted the use of butter only for him and his family. Others were granted the permission too but on the condition that they would have to pay 1/20 of the gold annually. The ban was finally lifted when Saxony became Protestant. Over the years, the bread has changed from being a staple and fairly ‘tasteless bread’ to being a sweeter, softer, airy bread made with richer ingredients. At present, it is one of the popular Christmas foods and not just in Germany.
Tap here to know the recipe and brighten up your Christmas celebrations with it.