bake - November 2012 - 52

Succulent Stollen
With Christmas right around the corner, there seems to be an endless number of traditional pastries and cakes from around the world to offer your customers. Stollen, a seasonal German pastry, not only introduces customers to a classic pastry, but also leaves room for a great deal of ﬂavor variety. Dense and rich, the buttery product caters to many different ﬂavors and styles. Offer some variety One of the best aspects of stollen is the versatility of the product. If your bakery has a signature ﬂavor, it might be worth trying to incorporate it into your stollen. In addition, try concocting a stollen made with regional ﬂavors. This can include any candied fruit or nuts from your part of the country. Considering that the product has been around so long, there isn’t exactly a wrong way to do it. “It’s a lot like king cakes. People do all types of ﬁllings. They might be doing a cherry-ﬁlled stollen in Michigan where cherries are more popular,” says Bill Hanisch, owner of Hanisch Bakery & Coffee Shop in Red Wing, MN. “It’s really whatever you can ﬁnd that can work at your bakery. Just go with it and market the heck out of it.” Shelf life Stollen has an extensive shelf life. The product is often ﬁlled with raisins and other fruits, and it can maintain its quality for one to two weeks. As you are preparing items in large quantities for Christmas, the stollen’s long shelf will help avoid unnecessary waste. This eases the stress of predicting exactly how much stollen to produce and can also be a helpful selling point. Shoppers are more likely to purchase an item that can be used for several occasions, as opposed to a product that will dry out in a day or two. Share the history Even though stollen has been around for centuries, many consumers do not know the cultural importance of the delicious German product. “I think stollen is something you can’t just put out there. Once you start something that has a bit Stollen history Stollen, Germany’s “Christmas cake,” has maintained its popularity among bakers for centuries. Stollen was ﬁrst baked at the Saxon Royal Court in 1427 as a Christmas pastry. Most popular, modern-day stollens are sweeter and richer than the original pastry. According to Reimer’s Stollen Bread in Three Rivers, CA, because stollen was traditionally made during the Advent season, a religious period of fasting in preparation for Christmas, butter was not used during its production. Oil was used as a substitute, resulting in a light pastry. During the time Saxony became Protestant, the fast on butter during According to Hanisch, many customers enter the bakery having never tried a stollen, let alone knowing the product’s cultural and seasonal signiﬁcance. Taking that into consideration, it is tremendously important to offer stollen samples to curious customers. more of a heritage and background, you also have to inform your customers where it is coming from and why you are making it,” Hanisch says. “We always have signs up explaining what a stollen is and where it comes from. We always make sure our customers know how and why we’re making stollen.”

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bake - November 2012

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