Baking Christstollen

Dear users, dear authors,
do you bake your own Christmas stollen, or do you tend to buy it ready-made?

I used to bake stollen for the whole family—about 20 of them every year. My parents, siblings, and my kids all got some. I’d be in the kitchen baking starting in early November, plus about 1,000 gingerbread cookies—also for the family. It was fun, but honestly, I don’t miss it now that I can’t do it anymore.
But ever since I had to go through that botched knee surgery, I don’t do it anymore—it’s way too exhausting.

Wow. You’re really hardworking.
Apparently, your knee was trying to tell you to take it easier.
Hope your knee feels better soon anyway.

I’ve been baking my own stollen for a few years now. I just think they taste so much better than the store-bought ones.

This year, I’m planning to bake just one quark stollen—I already have the ingredients. Maybe I’ll get around to it this week.

Forty years ago, my parents had the baker bake lots of stollen. Back then, there was stollen until early March. 

I still eat stollen myself today. My husband doesn’t like it very much. My daughter doesn’t have any either, since some of her children can’t eat gluten.

So I buy one for myself. Just for me. Of course, it’s not the same.


Best regards, Gabi

I bake my own stollen, though not every year. We prefer fruit bread or apple bread—some people call it by other names. Of course, we also make our own cookies and gingerbread.

This year, I’ll be making quark stollen and fruit bread again; our daughter wants to try her hand at cookies, so my oven won’t have as much to do.

I prefer to buy it ready-made.
I prefer to buy it ready-made. I prefer to buy it ready-made. I prefer to buy it ready-made. I prefer to buy it ready-made.

I think there’s a problem with the forum system. It shows that I’ve typed it over and over again.

Do you run into this problem often?

It might be caused by the Chrome plugin I’m using. There’s no problem right now. Thanks

OK :-)

My grandma used to send us one every year for Christmas, and I remember my dad would keep eating it well into February.

I’ve never baked one myself, since it’s traditionally baked in November and I’ve always remembered too late. But this year would be the perfect opportunity. Thanks, Josefa, for the reminder.

Does anyone have a great recipe for a marzipan stollen that you’d recommend? 

I was happy to do it.
Now get started, and have fun baking.

WollwunderPetra, check out Chefkoch and type “Quarkstollen” into the search bar—you’ll find plenty of delicious recipes there.

Akela, you mean I should let myself be surprised? Well then, I’ll see if I can find something I like. 

I would have preferred a recipe that got a lot of praise. :-)  

I baked my quark stollen today. 

Oh, that looks good. It’s pretty big. How long will you let it rest now?

Probably not for long. A quark stollen doesn’t keep as long as a yeast stollen and can actually be eaten right away.
I’ll cut into it by Sunday at the latest; it will definitely be eaten by Christmas.

How's it going?

I’ve decided to bake my own stollen again this year—I have almost everything I need at home.

Well, mine is now baked and resting in the dark, cold basement. (The picture shows it before baking.)
My first Stollen. We plan to cut into it on Sunday. 

My stollen dough is rising in the bowl for the first time, so I have some time right now :-) I have an old baking book with a recipe from someone from Dresden in it—that’s the one I’m making right now.

I always make the stollen right before Christmas; otherwise, we won’t have any left for the holidays...

If you bake it and eat it right away, it doesn’t have the same flavor as when it’s been allowed to rest for three weeks—that’s when it really develops its full flavor and becomes a true treat.

I know... but it never works out for us!

My three are baking away happily—girls, it smells so delicious all over the apartment :-)

They’re ready :-)
 

Wow, that’s making me hungry just thinking about it. I can practically smell it coming out of the oven—mmh, it looks delicious.

Wow, those look delicious. Let’s wait a bit until we find out how they taste

Is all the Christmas stollen gone and eaten up?

Not quite....
I baked my third one today—a quark stollen 😍
It won’t last more than a week. And that’s with just two people. And since I’m not a big fan of raisins, we often add cranberries instead—it gives it a slightly fruitier flavor.
I love this recipe; I got it from a “knitting sister” three years ago, and we’ve been making it every year since... 

Akela, did your stollen turn out well?

Ours is already gone, and I baked another one on Saturday. It’s now resting in the basement for another week, and I’ll definitely save some for Christmas Eve when the kids come over.

Cranberries in stollen—that sounds interesting, and I can definitely see it working. 

I’ve already eaten my stollen—they were both very delicious.

How did your stollen turn out? Were there any left over at Christmas?

I still have one left; my oldest daughter got one as a thank-you for driving me to the store so often.

All gone?

Of course. We ate it all. All the tins are empty. This week, we polished off the last of the store-bought Pfeffernüsse.