Stollen

Stollen

A Christmas Stollen
Type	Fruit cake
Place of origin	Germany
Region or state	Saxony
Main ingredients	candied fruit or dried fruit, nuts, spices (cardamom and cinnamon); sugar, powdered sugar or icing sugar

Stollen (German pronunciation: [ˈʃtɔlən̩]) ( listen )(German pronunciation: [ˈʃtɔln̩]) ( listen ) is a fruit bread containing dried fruit and often covered with powdered sugar or icing sugar. The bread is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and spices. Stollen is a traditional German bread usually eaten during the Christmas season, when it is called Weihnachtsstollen (after "Weihnachten", the German word for Christmas) or Christstollen (after Christ).

Stollen is a cake like fruit bread made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus peel (Zitronat),raisins and almonds, and different spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs, vanilla, 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. The traditional weight of Stollen is around 2.0 kg (4.4 lb), but smaller sizes are now available. However, because it is slathered with melted unsalted butter and rolled in sugar as soon as it comes out of the oven, it results in a much better-keeping and moister product. The marzipan rope in the middle is optional. The dried fruits are macerated in rum or brandy for a superior tasting bread.