Christmas Stollen – Such a Tasty Bread with Rum!
I’ve had Trader Joe’s Stollen last year, and I upgraded this year by trying a Christmas Stollen at a local bakery. Certain bakeries bake some delicious stollen bread around the holidays, and I haven’t had a fresh baked one in years until now.
Pretty to Gift – Christmas Stollen
I got my stollen bread from Masse’s Pastries in Berkeley this year, and wow, the packaging/wrapping is beautiful! They had it in a pink/peach color and a light green color. Each loaf this year was a bit over $20. Premium ingredients for sure.
What Exactly is Stollen?
Daring Gourmet can explain much better and lengthier than me. They have a recipe that looks divine – essentially a bread with rum, dried fruits, etc. in there, and coated with powdered sugar. The Trader Joe’s version was a bit dry, but the fresh one was rather moist, yet dense.
Powder Sugar Coating
Thankfully the powder sugar coating is rather thin on this stollen in comparison to the Trader Joe’s one. The bread itself doesn’t look that appealing, but it tasted way better than it looked! There was a generous amount of marzipan throughout, and each bite was just so wonderful. I shared with my family and they all had great things to say too. They all were disappointed by the Trader Joe’s stollen in comparison to this one.
Will I Bake my Own Stollen?
I sure hope so! An issue is finding the marzipan, but the other ingredients can be found (or subbed) easily. It’s rather pricy to buy loaves of these at bakeries, so saving $20 to make my own and to share would be rather an interesting experience… yet again, it’s just so easy to buy and enoy!
