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A brief history of Dresden’s most popular Christmas cake

The tradition of baking ‘Christstollen’ in Dresden is a very old one. Historians have traced this noble delicacy back to about the year 1400. The Stollen is mentioned for the first time in 1474 in the accounts of the Christian Hospital of St. Bartholomew in Dresden where it is referred to as a cake for the fasting period, consisting of only flour, oats and water as required by Church dogma.
However, without butter and milk the Stollen, also called Striezel, was rather tasteless. Therefore, Elector Ernst of Saxony and his brother Albrecht asked the Pope to revoke the ban on butter. The Holy Father softened his attitude and sent back what is known as the “Butter Letter” stating that milk and butter could be used in the Stollen with a clear conscience and God’s blessing, subject to a penance payment.
The Striezelmarkt, Dresden’s Christmas market whose name also relates to the traditional cake, was mentioned in the chronicles for the first time in 1474. After 1560 the bakers of Dresden gave the ruler of Saxony a Christmas gift consisting of one or two Stollen weighing 36 pounds each. It was carried to the Palace by eight master bakers and eight journeymen. This custom was continued for a long time.
In 1730 Augustus the Strong outdid all that had gone before. He had the Bakers’ Guild of Dresden make a giant Stollen weighing 1.8 tonnes for about 24,000 guests taking part in the festivities at the Zeithain ‘campement’.
This event is commemorated in the ‘Stollenfest’ held each December (2nd advent saturday) in Dresden.
The quality of the Dresden Christstollen as it is known today only developed in the course of the twentieth century as a result of the increasing prosperity and the use of high-quality ingredients. Already before the second world war, it was sent all around the world, sealed in tin boxes.
These packages containing the delicious Christmas cake were and still are the fulfilment of many a Christmas wish for friends and relatives all over the world, bringing back memories of Dresden or their Saxon homeland. Although there is a basic recipe for making Original Dresden Christstollen, each master baker and cake-maker has his own family secret passed down from one generation to the next.
A high degree of skill, carefully selected ingredients from far-away lands, along with mysterious spices are combined in a masterful bakery product. In the year 1900, the commercial producers of “Dresdner Stollen” set up a group to represent their joint interests.
This was called the “Schutzverband Dresdner Stollen e.V.” and guarantees to the consumer the consistent quality of the Dresden Stollen, as testified by a quality certificate, an oval seal showing the individual manufacturer’s registration and the word.

Recipes for Dresden Christstollen®

1. Raisin Stollen

Ingredients:
2,5 kg flour, 500 g sugar, 300 g yeast, 200 g butter, 1 kg margarine, approx. 0,75 l milk, 35 g salt, 4 packets vanilla-flavoured sugar, grated rind of 1 — 2 lemons, 150 g candied peel, 200 g sweet almonds, bitter almond flavouring, 1 - 1,5 kg sultanas, 250 g currants, rum or brandy, butter, sugar, icing sugar for coating
Preparation:
Soak the washed sultanas and currants in rum or brandy the evening before. On the next day make a well in the sifted flour and add the yeast mixed with a small amount of lukewarm milk and knead into a fairly stiff dough. Sift a little flour over the top, cover with a cloth and stand the bowl with the dough in a warm place.
Once the dough has risen, stir in the sugar, spices, fat, chopped candied peel and grated almonds together with as much warm milk as necessary, before adding the sultanas and currants. Allow the thoroughly kneaded dough to rise for at least 2 hours. Then knead the dough thoroughly once more and divide into 1 or 1.5 kg pieces.
Form the dough into loaves and cut a slit in the top approx. 1 cm deep. Bake in a moderate oven for about 60 mins. Then butter and sugar the surface, preferably in the following order: butter, fine clear sugar, butter, icing sugar. The Stollen needs to be stored for at least a week.

2. Almond Stollen

Ingredients: 2,5 kg flour, 850 g sugar, 300 g yeast, 200 g butter, 1 kg margarine, approx. 0,75 l milk, 35 g salt, 4 packets vanilla-flavoured sugar, grated rind of 1 — 2 lemons, 150 g candied peel, 500 g sweet almonds, bitter almond flavouring, butter, sugar, icing sugar for coating
Preparation:
Make a well in the sifted flour and add the yeast mixed with a small amount of lukewarm milk and knead into a fairly stiff dough. Sift a little flour over the top, cover with a cloth and stand the bowl with the dough in a warm place. Once the dough has risen, stir in the sugar, spices, fat, chopped candied peel and grated almonds together with as much warm milk as necessary.
Allow the thoroughly kneaded dough to rise for at least 2 hours. Then knead the dough thoroughly once more and divide into 1 or 1.5 kg pieces. Form the dough into loaves and cut a slit in the top approx. 1 cm deep. Bake in a moderate oven for about 60 mins. Then butter and sugar the surface, preferably in the following order: butter, fine clear sugar, butter, icing sugar. The Stollen needs to be stored for at least a week.

Source:
Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Amt für Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit

Please note:
Dresdner Christstollen® is a registrered collective trade mark of the Schutzverbandes Dresdner Stollen e.V.

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