Dresdner Osterbrot— Stollen for Easter

In Germany and throughout much of Europe, stollen is baked both for Christmas and Easter. In its various forms, and with its special ingredients it may be known as Julekage in Denmark, panettone in Italy, and stollen in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at Christmas-time. But then in the spring and several weeks before Easter, bakeries begin selling Osterbrot.

Peter Reinhart says: “The main difference between the three is in their flavorings: julekage contains cardamom, panettone is more floral, and stollen has an almond flavoring. Also, each is baked in its own distinctive shape.” Traditional stollen is folded into a kind of wrap, where the dough is folded into thirds over its self around a marzipan center. It is supposed to represent the baby Jesus swaddled. The Danish Julekage is usually made in a long bread pan and the Italian Panettone is nearly always in a tall round. But, writes Reinhart,”Regardless of how you adjust the flavors or shapes, the whole grain version here makes this a healthier, heartier holiday treat.”

The Osterbrot version of Stollen is a cake-like, sweet bread filled with dried fruit. It is made by mixing water or milk with flour and zested citrus peel to give it a fresh springtime flavor. It may be baked as a boule, log, or even in a bundt ban, which is my plan for this holiday,

Modern-day stollen is most often made with baker’s yeast but traditionally it was an enriched sourdough recipe and it was made that way for centuries. In its earliest uses, it was baked as a sweetened “communion” bread, where its history can be traced back to the early Orthodox Christian church. However, stollen was made most famous when, in 1474 AD, the Pope allowed bakers in Dresden to begin adding butter to their dough.

Prior to this date both Advent and Lent were times of fasting, which meant the bread was made with oats, flour, water, and with a very expensive oil made from turnips, and was sadly hard and quite tasteless. Finally after many appeals, in 1490, the Pope sent the “Butter-Letter,” to the then Prince of Saxony granting the use of butter not only for his family and household, but others in the Furstentum who were willing to paying an annual tax to support the construction of the Freiberg Minster were permitted to add butter to the dough.

As much of Northern Europe became Protestant, the butter tax was eliminated and bakers began to enrich doughs with sugar, honey, dried fruit, nuts, and marzipan. However, Dresden Stollen, heavy, moist, and filled with fruit, remains the most famous of all its stollen cousins. Traditional Dresden Stollen is neither very sweet nor light and airy as bakers in other places make it.

Because of its simple ingredients and dried fruit, it keeps for weeks, improves in taste over time, and is a common holiday gift. But sadly over time, the use of sourdough with a long-ferment has given in to the use of baker’s and other fast-acting yeasts, which leaves the bread tasting less flavorful than traditional sourdough loaves do.

Based on the old sourdough recipe, ours is a long-fermented dough packed with dried fruit and covered with almond slices. The bread is usually sliced warm and spread with butter for breakfast on Easter morning. It is also served at tea time: Kaffee und Kuchen, which literally mean ″coffee and cake″ in German, but by me makes a great treat any time of day