A southern German Christmas tradition dating back as far as the 14th century, stollen is made from a leavened sweet dough of milk, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, almond paste, yeast and butter.
“Lots of butter,” Askraikis says. “It winds up being about a third of butter. Really healthy, you know. But it’s better than margarine.”
About 15 minutes after tossing the initial ingredients into the mixer’s huge bowl—which, yes, included 13 pounds of butter—Astraikis pours in 37 pounds of orange and lemon peel, golden raisins and slivered almonds that have soaked in white rum for as long as two days in a large rubber bin.
After being formed and covered with an onion cloth for about 30 minutes to allow the yeast to work its magic, Astraikis flattens the dough with a rolling pin and folds it in half, leaving a lip around the edge. After another 30 minutes proofing, the stollen goes into the oven, where it bakes for about 40 minutes.
A final coating of clarified butter and granulated and powdered sugars on the stollen helps seal in the flavor with the intent that the holiday treat be given as a gift or savored all the way into the first few weeks of the New Year. Sweet only the outside, a freshly baked stollen is not a sugary, treat like a pastry or cake; rather, on the inside, it’s a soft, lightly textured bread. It’s the perfect accompaniment with coffee, which is how most Germans enjoy it, Kemmet-Cooper says.
The coating of sugar and fat allows the stollen to be shipped around the country and preserves it for so long. Askraikis, who says he’s kept the treat for close to a year, recommends storing in a cool, dark place if it isn’t going to be eaten immediately.
“Our customers use them as gifts. It’s something that’s completely unique, delicious,” Kemmet-Cooper says. “We get a lot of people that, once they’ve had it then they ship it to their friends.”
Stollen is Kemmet-Cooper’s obsession, her baby, though she relies on Askraikis to handle the day-to-day production. She has offered stollen since she opened Guglhupf on Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard in 1998. For all the attention afforded to the stollen, though, Kemmet-Cooper didn’t even like it when she was growing up in Germany. The country’s more-commercial offerings tended to be too heavy on fruits and often were too wet. Guglhupf’s stollen is a bit more “stripped down,” straddling that optimal balance of fruits, nuts and spices without overwhelming the taste buds.
“It’s kind of like barbecue in North Carolina,” Kemmet-Cooper says. “There can be so many different versions of it. You can start an argument about it … Ours is a very clean product.”
Much like Champagne originating from that region in France, a stollen cannot be properly referred to as a Dresdner Stollen unless it comes from Dresden, Germany, where it originated. The rest, like those from Guglhupf, are referred to as Dresden-style, though Astraikis, showing a streak of Durham pride, calls his “Durham-ish” as he scoops a batch out of the mixer.
The original stollen was made from water, flour and yeast because of restrictions established by the Catholic Church that forbade the use of butter and milk during Advent. Pope Innocent VIII lifted that restriction in the 17th century in return for additional taxes. The resulting recipe is the one that endures today.
“There’s so much tradition behind it,” Kemmet-Cooper says. “Every area (of Germany) has such specific specialties. So much of the culture is reflected in food and I think that’s something that’s always even incredibly fascinating to me.”
By two weeks after Thanksgiving, Astraikis has caught his stride. He figures about 1,500 stollen have been made. About 100 large and small loaves rest in the back of the bakery, waiting to be shipped to their destinations or to be sold in the bakery’s small shop alongside its usual breakfast Danishes and pastries. Last Friday, Askraikis was able to even take a break. Instead of the forming and baking loaves, he and a coworker were busy forming and baking the stollen dough into about a 1,000 star-shaped cookies in preparation for the bakery’s third annual Christmas bazaar.
Unlike its American cousin—the dreaded and often maligned fruitcake—a stollen might just be a gift that its recipient will actually treasure. Astraikis goes so far as to call it the “antithesis of the American fruitcake.”
“It’s perfect,” Kemmet-Cooper says. “That last stollen that we have, I could auction it off.”
Guglhupf’s stollen ($13.50 for small/ $22.50 for large) is available online via: http://shop.guglhupf.com/christmas-stollen/
Orders must be placed by Dec. 16 for Christmas delivery. They can also be picked up in the store, located at 2706 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd.
