Authentic Stollen (German Christmas Bread)
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.
German Stollen have been around for nearly 700 years and are prized throughout the world as one of the most famous and beloved of all Christmas pastries. Made with homemade candied orange peel and marzipan (both super easy to make) your search for the BEST authentic German Stollen recipe has ended. Flaky, moist, and divinely flavorful, these homemade German Christmas Stollen are INCREDIBLE!
Sweet cakes and breads studded with candied fruits and nuts are hallmarks of Christmas baking in many areas of the world. Examples in the English speaking nations include fruit cake or Figgy Pudding, Scottish Dundee Cake, and then there is Panettone in Italy, keks in Poland, julekake in Norway, bolo-rei in Portugal, Hutzelbrot in Germany, and birnenbrot in Switzerland. But perhaps none are revered as highly throughout the world as German Stollen. I’m from southern Germany and celebrating the Christmas season without Stollen is simply unthinkable.
What is Stollen?
Christmas stollen, known in Germany as Christstollen or Weihnachtsstollen, is a yeasted fruit bread that is baked with dried fruits, candied citrus peel, nuts and spices. Stollen are baked free form into cake-like loaves that are folded in a sort of lopsided way that is characteristic of them. Stollen is sweet but it contains relatively little added sugar and instead derives its sweetness from the dried fruits and candied citrus peel. Stollen are famously dusted with a thick coat of powdered sugar, reminiscent of the snowy German landscape (like beautiful Ramsau by Berchtesgaden below), and baked with spices conveying the warmth of the Christmas season.
Where Did It Originate?
The first and most famous variety of stollen is the Dresdner Christstollen. Some historians date its concept back to 1329, and over the centuries the stollen was refined to become what it is today. And it has come a long way indeed because originally it was a bland and rather hard pastry as the use of butter and milk was forbidden during Lent by the Catholic church. Petitions were submitted to the pope, the first one in 1450, for permission to use butter for making the Stollen but it was denied. Fifty years and five popes later, Prince Ernst von Sachsen, at the request of the bakers of Dresden, petitioned the pope again to lift the butter ban. It was granted this time via the pope’s famous Butterbrief, “butter letter” – but only to members of the Prince’s household. A few select others were also granted permission but only on condition that they paid an annual sum of gold for the building of the Freiberg Minster.
The butter ban was once an for all lifted during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. From that point the stollen gradually developed into an enjoyable sweet bread incorporating additional ingredients and it become an important symbol of the region. King August II in 1730 commissioned the bakers of Dresden to bake a gigantic stollen in celebration of the strength of the Saxon military, an event to which he invited the dignitaries of Europe in the hope of building allies. The stollen weighed 1.8 tons (that’s 3600 pounds!), was 27 feet long and 18 feet wide and a special oven was designed and built just for this purpose. It took a convoy of eight horses to transport the stollen to the king’s table and a 26 pound and 5 1/4 foot-long knife was used to cut it.
Germany’s first Christmas market was held in Dresden in 1434. This market, the Dresdner Striezelmarkt, continues to be held every year. Also held annually on the Saturday prior to the 2nd Advent is the Dresdner Stollenfest featuring Germany’s largest Christstollen. So far 2013 holds the record for the largest Stollen weighing nearly 9400 pounds! Each year a horse-drawn carriage parades the giant stollen through the streets and on to the Christmas market. Per tradition, a replica of the original 5-foot long knife is used to slice the stollen. The mayor of the city tastes the first piece and the stollen is then cut into thousands of pieces that are sold with the proceeds going to charity.
The Symbolism Behind Stollen
The word “stollen” refers to a post or boundary stone for a city. It is also thought it could refer to the entrance of a mine shaft. Some historians believe that the stollen’s characteristic shape was molded after the shape of a mine tunnel, reflective of the silver and tin mining industries of the time. But there is also religious symbolism behind the stollen with the loaf, or bread, being symbolic of the body of Christ. Specifically, being dusted with powdered sugar, it is symbolic of the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes. Thus it is traditionally called Christstollen, or Christ Stollen.
Stollen Variations
Other popular variations of Stollen include Mandelstollen (almond stollen), Mohnstollen (poppy seed stollen), Quarkstollen (made with quark), Nuss-Stollen (nut stollen), Butterstollen (high butter content), Dresdner Stollen and Marzipanstollen (marzipan stollen). Mohnstollen is another one of my favorites.
How to Make the BEST Stollen
For anyone who may be feeling a little intimidated at the thought of making Stollen, don’t be. If you can make a cake or a loaf of bread, you can make Stollen. But while it’s easy to make, it’s not quick to make. There’s a waiting game involved both during the baking process and the aging process. In the baking process the Stollen dough has to rise a couple of times just like in making yeast bread. Then it has to bake for a while. And then there’s the waiting process.
I’m sharing with you my recipe for Stollen which is thoroughly authentic in its method and ingredients. It features dried fruits, candied lemon peel, nuts and marzipan (which you can omit if you choose). I LOVE the addition of marzipan and it’s one of the most popular varieties of Stollen. Don’t worry about having to go out and buy marzipan, it is unbelievably quick and easy to make your own (seriously, it takes about 5 minutes). Check out my recipe for easy homemade Marzipan!
Candied Citrus Peel. Do you hate store-bought candied orange and lemon peel as much as I do? I have to tell you, I absolutely detest store-bought candied citrus peel. And most people I speak to feel the same. It has a bizarre chemical flavor no matter the brand. For that reason I’ve never been a fan of fruitcakes in general. BUT (and there’s a big but) using your own homemade candied citrus peel is a 100% deal changer.
While you can use store-bought candied citrus peel if you insist, I VERY, VERY STRONGLY recommend making your own. Please, trust me on this: Using homemade candied citrus peel is the difference between night and day when it comes to flavor! It is vastly superior in every way and will make your Stollen taste incredible! And the good news is it can be made far, far in advance. In fact, I freeze mine so it lasts basically forever and I take out what I need as needed. Check out my recipe for Candied Orange Peel!
Storage Tips
Typically the Stollen is tightly wrapped and kept in a cool place to age for 2-3 weeks before eating. This allows the liquid from the rum-soaked dried fruits to soak into the bread creating both flavor and moistness.
Fun trivia: Fruitcakes that contain a lot of alcohol can remain edible for years. Yes, years. For example, the Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered a 106-year-old fruitcake last year and after sampling it (the brave souls) they said it was not only in “excellent condition” for its age but was even “almost” edible! Another fruitcake baked in 1878 in Michigan was kept as a family heirloom and sampled for the first time in 2003 by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. It’s amazing what an incredible preservative alcohol is. So in other words, as long as you keep your Stollen tightly wrapped and in a cool place, letting it age for 2 weeks is, like, nothing.
Does Stollen have to be aged? No! While letting Stollen age will allow the flavors to fully penetrate the bread, this Stollen is absolutely AMAZING straight out of the oven! So the question of whether to wait or not to wait I’ll leave up to you.
If you’ve never been a huge fan of store-bought Stollen you’re not alone. I’ve never cared for them either. But homemade…that’s an entirely different story. Just check out the hundreds of rave reviews below: Your search for the BEST Stollen recipe has ENDED.
Authentic German Stollen Recipe
Let’s get started!
Place the raisins, candied citrus peel and almonds in a medium bowl and pour the rum over it. Stir to combine. Set aside and let the fruit mixture soak in the rum while the dough rises.
Stir the yeast and 2 tablespoons of the sugar into the lukewarm milk and let sit in a warm place for 10-15 minutes until very frothy.
Place the flour, remaining sugar, egg, egg yolks, butter, vanilla extract, lemon zest, salt, cardamom, mace and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast/milk mixture.
Use a spoon to stir the mixture until it comes together. Knead the dough on the bread setting and once the dough comes together continue to knead for 7 minutes.
Remove the dough ball, lightly spray the bowl with a little oil, return the dough ball, cover loosely with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place or lightly warmed oven (just barely warm), to rise until nearly doubled in size, at least 1 hour.
Punch down the dough and add the soaked fruit/nut mixture to the dough (it should have absorbed all the rum by now but if there is excess liquid, pour it out before adding the mixture to the dough).
Using the dough hook, knead the fruit/nut mixture into the dough until combined. If the dough is too wet to handle, add a little bit of flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Note: I use my Kitchenaid stand mixer because it’s such a workhorse. You’ll also need a dough hook attachment. There are other pricier options on the market but I’ve been very happy with my Kitchenaid.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.
Cut the dough in two equal halves. Press or roll each piece into an oval to about 1 inch thickness. Roll each piece of marzipan into a log the length of the oval. Press the marzipan gently into the middle of the dough.
Fold the left side of the dough over to cover the marzipan, then fold right side over on top of the left side so that the edge of it sits just left of the middle of the stollen. In other words, don’t fold the right side all the way over to the left edge of the stollen.
Pinch and tuck the top and bottom ends of the stollen to cover the marzipan.
Use the bottom edge of your hand to press down along the length of the stollen towards the right of the center to create a divot and characteristic hump.
Place the stollen on a lined baking sheet. Cover the stollen loosely with plastic wrap and let them rest in a warm place or lightly warmed oven for 40-60 minutes until puffy.
At this point you can pick off any raisins that are sticking out of the dough (they will burn during baking).
Towards the end of the last rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the stollen for 30-40 minutes or until golden. You can use an instant read thermometer (I love )to aim for an internal temperature of 190 degrees F.
Let them sit for 5 minutes, then use a toothpick to poke holes all over the stollen. This will allow the melted butter to seep in.
Generously brush the stollen with the melted butter while the stollen are still warm.
Immediately sprinkle with a generous amount of powdered sugar, rubbing it into the creases and down the sides. Let the stollen cool completely.
The stollen can be sliced and eaten now or wrapped tightly (I like to wrap in plastic wrap then foil) and left to “ripen” in a cool place for 2 weeks. The liquid from the dried fruits will further penetrate the dough for more flavor and moisture.
Stollen can also be frozen for longer storage.
For eating, I like to warm the slices up for a few seconds in the microwave, it makes the crumb nice and soft.
Enjoy!
How to Make Gluten Free Stollen
I’m often asked “can I make this gluten free?” Yes, you can make gluten free stollen and I’ve had a several readers report back with success following the same method and simply substituting the flour 1:1 with GF flour. Follow all the same steps, including the rising time, though gluten free dough won’t rise to the same extent. It also won’t have the elasticity that regular dough has so be prepared to use a bench scraper as needed to help shape the dough. Be careful to drain the soaked fruits to eliminate as much excess liquid as possible and be prepared to add a little extra flour as needed until the dough is a workable consistency.
For more traditional German Christmas goodies try my:
- Pfeffernüsse
- Lebkuchen
- Springerle
- Gugelhupf
- Printen
- Speculoos
- Vanillekipferl
- Zimtsterne
- Kokosmakronen
- Magenbrot
- Bethmännchen
- Heidesand
- German Rum Balls
Save This Recipe
Enter your email address and we’ll send it straight to your inbox!
Authentic Stollen (German Christmas Bread)
Ingredients
- For the Dough:
- 1 cup lukewarm whole milk
- 3 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more as needed NOTE: Amount will vary depending on how much liquid is retained in the soaked dried fruit. Be sure to drain any excess liquid. Add more flour as needed if dough is too wet. (Gluten free, substitute 1:1 GF flour.)
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) , at room temperature so it’s very soft
- 2 teaspoons quality pure vanilla extract
- zest of one lemon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 3/4 teaspoon ground mace (recommended but can substitute nutmeg)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 8 ounces Homemade Marzipan/Almond Paste , divided in half (you can omit the marzipan if you prefer)
- or store-bought marzipan/almond paste
- For the Fruits & Nuts:
- 9 ounces raisins
- 3 ounces candied lemon peel , finely diced
- 3 ounces candied orange peel , finely diced
- Homemade Candied Citrus Peel Recipe (we VERY STRONGLY recommend using homemade, it makes ALL the difference!)
- 3 ounces blanched slivered or sliced almonds , finely chopped
- 1/3 cup quality dark rum
- For the Glaze & Dusting:
- 1 stick unsalted butter , melted
- powdered sugar for generous dusting
Instructions
- Place the raisins, candied citrus peel and almonds in a medium bowl and pour the rum over it. Stir to combine. Set aside and let the fruit mixture soak in the rum while the dough rises.
- Stir the yeast and 2 tablespoons of the sugar into the lukewarm milk and let sit in a warm place for 10-15 minutes until very frothy.
- Place the flour, remaining sugar, egg, egg yolks, butter, vanilla extract, lemon zest, salt, cardamom, mace and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast/milk mixture. Use a spoon to stir the mixture until it comes together. Knead the dough on the bread setting for 7-8 minutes. Remove the dough ball, lightly spray the bowl with a little oil, return the dough ball, cover loosely with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place or lightly warmed oven (just barely warm), to rise until nearly doubled in size, at least 1 hour (likely closer to 2 hours depending on the temperature of the environment).
- Punch down the dough and add the soaked fruit/nut mixture to the dough (it should have absorbed all the rum by now but if there is excess liquid, pour it out before adding the mixture to the dough). Using the dough hook, knead the fruit/nut mixture into the dough until combined. If the dough is too wet to handle, add a little bit of flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and cut it in two equal halves. Press or roll each piece into an oval to about 1 inch thickness. Roll each piece of marzipan into a log the length of the oval. Press the marzipan gently into the middle of the dough. Fold the left side of the dough over to cover the marzipan, then fold right side over on top of the left side so that the edge of it sits just left of the middle of the stollen (see pics). In other words, don’t fold the right side all the way over to the left edge of the stollen. Pinch and tuck the top and bottom ends of the stollen to cover the marzipan. Use the bottom edge of your hand to press down along the length of the stollen towards the right of the center to create a divot and characteristic hump (see pics). Place the stollen on a lined baking sheet. Cover the stollen loosely with plastic wrap and let them rest in a warm place or lightly warmed oven for 40-60 minutes until puffy. At that point you can pick off any raisins that are sticking out of the dough (they will burn during baking).
- Towards the end of the last rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the stollen for 30-40 minutes or until golden. You can use an instant read thermometer to aim for an internal temperature of 190 degrees F. Let the Stollen sit for 5 minutes, then use a toothpick to poke holes all over the stollen (this will allow the butter to seep in), then generously brush the stollen with the melted butter while the stollen are still warm. Immediately sprinkle with a generous amount of powdered sugar, rubbing it into the creases and down the sides. Let the stollen cool completely. You may want to give it another dusting of powdered sugar once cooled.
- The stollen can be sliced and eaten now or wrapped tightly (wrap in plastic wrap then foil) and left to "ripen" in a cool place for 2 weeks. The liquid from the dried fruits will further penetrate the dough for more flavor and moisture. Stollen can also be frozen for longer storage.
- Makes 2 large or 3 medium Stollen.For eating, I like to warm the slices up for a few seconds in the microwave, it makes the crumb nice and soft.
Nutrition
Originally published on The Daring Gourmet November 20, 2018
Hi, I’m Kimberly Killebrew and welcome to Daring Gourmet where you'll find delicious originals, revitalized classics, and simply downright good eats from around the world! Originally from Germany, later raised in England, world-traveled, and now living in the U.S., from my globally-influenced kitchen I invite you to tour the world through your taste buds!
I am celiac and allergic to dairy and was able to modify the recipe so I could eat it. I used Namaste Perfect Flour Blend which is a cup for cup GF flour substitute. I found I had to add a bit more flour to get the dough to form together. I also went on the slowest setting with the stand mixer and frequently turned the dough with a spatula to aid in mixing. I used unsweetened Almond milk as a replacement for the milk. Instead of butter, I used Becel Vegan margarine in brick form. The dough took a bit longer to rise and didn’t get quite as puffy as the stollen I made with regular flour. The resulting stollen was a bit more dense, but still incredibly delicious. I made the homemade candied citrus peel which was amazing, but omitted the marzipan completely as I’m not a fan. I will be making the recipe every Christmas. So delicious!
Wonderful, Leah, thanks so much for the detailed info on the GF and dairy free substitutes!
Made this today! My only regret is I don’t have a good food processor to make my own marzipan. The store bought is “okay”. I should have softened it before baking it in the bread. Love the flavour of the homemade candied peels. It was a process but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be so now that I have it down…I’m ready to make another batch :).
Thank you for sharing!
That’s wonderful, Betty, thank you so much!
You can make the marzipan with a mixer, that’s how I made mine.
Best Stollen recipe I’ve ever tried. Followed directions pretty much to the letter, though I seemed to have a lot of dried fruit and nuts! Spouse thinks it was his mom’s recipe, (hate to tell him that her recipe was awful), he’s loving it and that’s all that matters. I have a very cool house, so it took a longer time for the proofing and rise, did it in the oven with a pan of hot water (that works great). I’ll be making this again! Thanks!
Haha! That’s awesome, Deb, thanks so much and I’m thrilled you both enjoyed it!
Delicious! Best stollen I’ve ever made. Thanks!!!!
I made some substitutions/alterations:
– 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger added
– no candied orange and lemon peels
– 120g sliced almonds instead of 85g
– 120g butter + 50g lard instead of 170g butter
– 70g powdered sugar + 30g brown sugar instead of 100g powdered sugar
– just 50g melted butter to brush; it was more than enough
And I used only 3g of dry yeast and 130g of my own natural yeast; I had to reduce milk amount because the natural year was also liquid.
And I made the marzipan, of course.
The result was fluffy and delicious.
This was insanely delicious! I’m not a bread maker, so I’m a little nervous when it comes to proofing dough, but no worries here. My loaves didn’t rise much, but looked pretty much like the photos in the recipe, and they tasted divine. I didn’t want the stollen to be really sweet, so I omitted the butter and sugar on top. Glad I did as it was plenty sweet for my taste. I made the candied citrus peel, and now I want it in everything! (I made butter cookies, dipped half in chocolate and sprinkled with chopped candied peel – so good.) Next time I’ll leave out the marzipan, too (sorry, I know it’s a treasured tradition) as I thought it was a little heavy in the bread. And since I’m not doing the butter/sugar on top, I’ll try brushing with egg white before baking to make it pretty. Think I’m gonna go make this again now . . . thank you!
I’m so glad, Carrie, thank you! And no worries at all about omitting the marzipan, it’s completely optional and the Dresdner Christstollen doesn’t include it either. I agree, the candied citrus peel is SO good and I use it all the time in lots of different things :)
I followed everything verbatim. We are making cinnamon rolls and no issue with the dough rising. But this? Nothing. The initial rise did nothing. So disappointing. Not sure what went wrong.
It smells delicious, but…. the texture is a flop.
Hi, two things: 1) Stollen is an enriched sweet dough with a lot of weight added to it from the dried fruits, so it requires a very long rise. Be sure to give it adequate time. And depending on the temperature in your home it may need even longer. 2) If it’s still not rising at all then your yeast is bad.
This is the initial rise. The yeast definitely isn’t bad; we’re making multiple leaven breads (sweet and non) this week. It eventually rose a little, but even after an hour for the initial rise time in the oven on our proof setting, it was minimal.
Usually if there is no rise then there was accidentally too much salt added.
I had the same problem. I actually made this recipe last year and it turned out wonderful, but I made only 1/2 the recipe. This year I went with the full amount and the dough did not rise even after 2hours and then I realized my mistake. I always thought that one packet of yeast is 1 tbsp = 3 tsp, well it is only 2 1/4 tsp. Given the amount of butter, this is quite a rich dough. To fix it I heated a little bit of milk, pinch of sugar and added 1/2 packet of yeast, mixed it in and let it rise again and it worked. The dough has risen.
Hi, I had this problem too, and think it may have something to do with the alchol. Not everyone in my family likes the fruit and marzipan, so I divided the dough. The half without the fruit rose beautifully and was delicious as a braided loaf with sesame seeds. However, the half with the rum-soaked fruit just sat there like a brick. And indeed, alchol will ‘poison’ yeast and kill it. After about three hours I just cooked it anyway, and it rose a bit, but not at all properly, and I ended up with a brick, albeit a tasty one with all the butter, sugar, and marzipan! Given how good the base dough was, and how tasty even the brick was, I am going to try this again. This time, after soaking the fruit and nuts, I will heat them to drive off the alcohol (it won’t ruin the flavor) and then cool to lukewarm before adding them to the dough. If I want more alcohol in the end for the flavor or preservative properties, I can always beat it into the melted butter before brushing the hot loaf with it.
Sadly mine have turned out too dry and hard. I made the homemade peel too so it’s disappointing that they are now waste. I left them in a cool place (not the fridge) tightly wrapped as described. Now wondering what to turn them into so I can still give something to friends.
I just made this recipe, and the marzipan recipe (oh wow YUM) and they are about to go in the oven. I did slightly miss that I was making two though! I see you say that they can be frozen, any tips for this and then for defrosting them later down the line? I would just store it, but we’re in New Zealand and it’s summer so it’s hot hot hot and I don’t want to risk it going bad.
Hi Bel, yes, you can freeze them and then just let them thaw at room temp. Once thawed you can slice and pop the slices briefly in the toaster or microwave for a few seconds to warm and soften them up.