It’s that time of year. No, not Miller Time, it’s Stollen Time! And the best place for stollen is Dresden, Germany. Avaiable at the Backerei & Konditorei (bakery & pastry); but don't worry if you didn't make it to Germany for the festival on Nov 29th. Enjoy with a good mug of coffee.
Stollen Maiden About the Festival:
The history of the Stollen Festival dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. In 1730, Friedrich August I., better known as August the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland arranged a legendary amusement festivity in the framework of a camp known as Zeithainer Lustlager (or Zeithainer Lager). Even today, it is still the epitome of the baroque way of life because of its luxury and splendour. This festivity is the historical model for today's Stollen Festivals.
The Dresden Stollen Festival is quite a young festival. It was celebrated for the first time in 1994. In the meantime, it has established itself as part of Dresden's cultural life and is considered to be the highlight of the Dresden Christmas fair (Striezelmarkt). Originally, the festival was planned as a single PR-Event for the Dresden Stollen. It has become an important destination for the Christmas Capital Dresden and takes place every Saturday prior to the 2nd Advent.
If you dare try, here's an authentic recipe, translated. Note measurements in grams.
Dresden Stollen -recipe with one "Metze" (4 kg) flour for 6 four-pound-stollen
4000 gram wheaten flour
1600 gram butter
500 gram butter lard
600 gram preserving sugar
750 gram sweet almonds, pulverized
250 gram bitter almonds, pulverized
600 gram candid lemon peel
3000 gram seedless raisins
1000 gram milk
250 gram yeast
50 gram salt
100 gram lemon peel
10 gram Macis
300 gram rum
1 gram vanilla pod
Dresden Christmas Stollen (translated from native tongue, German)
The Dresden woman Lenelies Pause delivered in her monography about the "royal Children" a stollen recipe in his high developed form. It demonstrated the high school of the art to bake Dresden stollen:
"There are a lof of tales. The history tells, they don't used milk, they better took the rich cream, 2 cans, full, directly from a farmer. It is the speech of a "Metze" (4 kilogram) dusty wheaten flour. This "Metze" devours desirous 2 kilogram of the best butter, snatch 3 kilogram seedless raisins with themselves, satisfied themselves with 1 kilogram almonds. It desires an hand full with bitter glassy candied lemon peel, planed orange peel, takes also a breath mace - rubbed soft over a peace of sugar with powerless hand -, demands a charge of the good old Arrak and takes the sugar not in the modern crystallized form, but after the good old tradition as an hat which is packed in blue paper, and then also only martared, sifted and on the lemon rubbed off. The Stollen is an unready children only mixed, formed and baked. With 1000 gram melted hot butter the stollen will be slowly and softly touched und steeped, sugar, smells like vanila, sinks up like a snow clouds, till it finally carried home, with a sweet aroma, which march through the whole city in the days before Christmas and all bakeries, whichs breathes out of all corridors."
