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One of my fondest memories of the winter holidays is the smell of loaves of Stollen baking in my mother’s oven. Stollen is a type of sweet bread that has raisins and candied fruits, and when it is cool enough, the loaves are drizzled with an icing made with confectioner’s sugar.

While the family recipe was always very tasty, a few years ago, I adapted it a little bit so that it would be more moist. Making this traditional German bread is a labor of love, like so many of the other goodies that we might have this time of the year…such as cut-out Christmas cookies.

There is a recipe for Stollen on our website. Many people have already downloaded it, but I just wanted to remind you that it is there.

The other item that my mother always made was fruitcake. To make her fruitcakes, she would macerate the candied fruit in rum for a month to six weeks ahead of time. I didn’t care for the boozey flavor, but I do like the crunchiness of the pecans and other nuts, etc. in fruitcakes that are a purchased item.

You might have heard the saying, “Friends don’t give friends fruitcakes.” However, I know people who really like fruitcake. I particularly enjoy the fruitcakes sold by Collins Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. No, that’s not an ad, and I have no affiliation with the company, other than making them a little more successful. Every year, I usually buy a fruitcake for our family. When I am able to do so, I send some as gifts.

This year, the grocery shopper in our family has already picked up the ingredients for Stollen. Sometimes, if one waits too long, the store are sold out of candied cherries and such. I am so looking forward to baking that delicious yeast bread. I know there will be a certain comfort in partaking of it, as it is an age old tradition that reached back to my maternal family’s roots in Austria. My mother was fond of serving Stollen with tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. Enjoy!

Patricia

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 8:18 pm and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.