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The Rischart Christmas Stollen
One of Rischart's absolute top sellers: the Christmas stollen. It comes in different varieties, and without it, Christmas would be like Easter without eggs! So? – What am I talking about? Exactly, the Christmas stollen, or more precisely, the one from the Rischart bakery. I was there again recently and had the great honor of making my own Christmas stollen (…not suitable for sale ;-)…), seeing how stollen confections are made, and the various stages the stollen goes through before we can buy it. For me personally, it was incredibly fascinating and – as is true of everything from Rischart – soooo delicious. Come, let me take you with me…
When shaping the stollen dough
Rischart's range of Christmas stollen
Rischart Stollen comes in eight different varieties to suit various tastes. Whether you prefer a classic style or want to add a touch of extravagance to your Christmas table, Rischart has the perfect Stollen solution. 😉 Besides the classic "Rischart Stollen" (500 grams for €10.90), there's also the "Münchner Kindl Stollen" (with macadamia nuts and brown almonds | 500 grams for €11.80), the "Marc de Champagner Stollen" (500 grams for €10.80), and also the "Marzipan Stollen," "Apricot Stollen" (500 grams for €11.40), "Almond Stollen" (500 grams for €10.90), as well as the "Nut Stollen" and "Poppy Seed Stollen." Each stollen is stylishly and airtightly wrapped in foil and clearly decorated with a different colored label and matching ribbon. So it's ready to go straight from the counter to the Christmas table or as a gift for friends. My favorite is the classic marzipan and apricot. (...you surely remember the...) Easter cake (with apricot flavor...) Marc de Champagne is a particularly "noble" variety and should be a new taste experience for every gourmet among you. If a 500-gram package is too much for you, you can also get the 280-gram slice package of classic Rischart Stollen (for €6.40). Convenient, as it's already sliced, and if you don't fancy biting into a whole Stollen, it's ready to eat in this form. :-))
The finished stollen are placed in the mold.
Producing a Stollen like this requires a fair amount of effort. Most of it is needed in the hands, because the finished dough, enriched with sultanas from Australia, the finest candied orange and lemon peel, and exclusively high-quality ingredients (German branded butter, Lübeck marzipan made from Californian almonds, the best Berchtesgaden milk, Lower Bavarian flour, chopped almonds, and so on), has to be thoroughly kneaded before being placed in the mold. More precisely, it has to be shaped into the appropriate form, formed into an elongated sausage, pressed, and then placed in the mold with the "open end" (you essentially fold the dough inwards twice along the outer edges) facing down. I tasted both the candied orange peel, which is deliberately processed rather coarsely in the Rischart Stollen, and the candied lemon peel separately, and unlike "cheap baked goods," it doesn't taste nearly as sweet, artificial, or sticky as conventional candied orange and lemon peel. Even the sultanas, specially imported from distant Australia and long sought after – soaked in rum for an extended period – are, when tasted on their own, a clear indication of the "baked-in quality" in the finished Stollen ("5 Crown" sultanas – the best quality sultanas | included in every variety except poppy seed, nut, almond, and almond Stollen). The most crucial element, however, is undoubtedly the secret spice blend, which has been guarded since 1883 at least as closely as the Coca-Cola recipe and is known only to the Rischart family and a few confidants. All of this results in the perfect Stollen yeast dough. The almond, poppy seed, and nut Stollen, by the way, have a lighter yeast dough than the other varieties.
After baking and dusting with granulated sugar, they are halved.
The raw stollen, nestled in the molds, are then set aside for a short rest to ferment, baked, brushed with a rum-sugar mixture, brushed again with butter, rolled in granulated sugar, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. And I mean really powdered sugar! Between each step, the stollen is given a little time to absorb the respective ingredient, allowing it to "soak in." Once the stollen emerges from the packaging station (a separate room at Rischart, equipped with the latest technology for packaging, weighing, and labeling), all that's left is the festive "stollen sticker," a ribbon, and shipping to the individual branches. It's important to note that the 1-kilogram stollen are divided into two 500-gram portions during production. This isn't because Rischart wouldn't give you a kilo of Stollen; rather, the Stollen loses its moistness, flavor, and overall enjoyment if it sits in the kitchen for too long after being opened. You can buy both sizes, but it's better to get two 500-gram loaves so you can enjoy them for longer. 🙂 You'll also notice when eating it that the Stollen dough has been continuously optimized and perfected over the years.
Packaged Rischart Stollen leave the production facility
„…I can do that too!“
…or so I thought at first. 😉 At the "Stollen station," I got the chance to try my hand at it. The hardest part is handling the dough correctly at the beginning, so that it gets the right shape. I was also shown the "old" method of Stollen production and it was explained to me why it's so important that the dough has the right shape, length, and "fold." Otherwise, it breaks or doesn't get the classic Christmas Stollen shape. I didn't do quite as badly making Stollen as I did shaping pretzels (here) or when making ice cream (hereI was employed, but it wasn't easy either. 🙂 That's why I want to tell you: quality has its price, and craftsmanship has its purpose. You might quickly wonder why certain products have a certain price or "what could possibly be so difficult about them," but so far, every visit to Rischart has shown me that it's more than justified. The same goes for their Christmas stollen in all its diverse varieties.
Each variety gets its own "Christmas outfit".„
Hard facts and information
The Rischart Stollen is available in all branches and online (Rischart at Amazon and the Online shop They make it possible! ;-)) to get it. It's also interesting that the gold plate with assorted cookies is particularly popular in Munich, which Elisenlebkuchen Dark chocolate and Christmas stollen – especially the classic version („Rischart Stollen“) – are among your favorites. What about you?
In total, there are 18 types of cookies, 8 types of gingerbread, fruit bread, Kletzenbrot (a type of fruit bread), and the eight varieties of Christmas stollen described above. If you're wondering why the "Münchner Kindl-Stollen" is called that, it's an interesting story in itself. As determined and created by the Munich Bakers' Guild, it may only be produced by Munich bakeries. That's why it contains the "queen of nuts," the macadamia nut (see also the photo of the dough ball in the gallery), "for the most beautiful city in the world." At the same time, the Münchner Kindl-Stollen is also meant to highlight the long tradition of Munich's baking craft, much like the term "Münchner Kindl" refers to someone born in Munich with Munich parents and grandparents.
They don't skimp on the powdered sugar.
The origin story of the Christmas stollen
„"As bakers and confectioners know, Stollen belongs to the so-called 'shaped breads'. These are pastries that represent specific symbolic forms or figures. For many centuries, Stollen has been considered the Christ Child wrapped in white cloths. Where the first Stollen was baked and who created the recipe and shape is not documented. However, cultural historians and other scholars agree that the original Stollen was baked in Saxony around the year 1300. And it is still baked today just as it was 700 years ago.". The first documented mention of the Stollen dates back to 1329 in Naumburg an der Saale. An old document indicates that the bakers of Naumburg agreed to deliver "two long wheat Stollen, for which half a bushel of wheat flour would be used," to their Bishop Heinrich and his court at Christmas. „"What's right for the clergy," the Saxon ruler, acting as secular sovereign, must have thought, "is only fair to me!" Thus, a tax obligation similar to a bishop's tribute arose for bakers of white and flatbreads in the royal residence of Dresden (until 1913). Every second day of Christmas, the bakers' guild delivered two Christmas stollen, each one and a half meters long and weighing 36 pounds, to the castle, carried by eight master bakers and eight journeymen. The term "wheat stollen" has therefore been documented since 1329. In 1474, the term "Christ bread" appears in Saxony. A document states: "Item 7 gr vor zewey Christbrot den armen luten uff wynachten," which means: "Likewise, seven groschen for two Christmas breads for the poor people at Christmas." (Source: http://www.weihnachtsstadt.de/brauchtum/allgemein/christstollen.html)
Tested: Rischart Stollen in various varieties from Max Rischart's Backhaus KG
Available: Available at Amazon Fresh, in the online shop and in all stores Rischart branches
Rischart production: Buttermelcherstraße 16 in the Glockenbachviertel
Pictures:
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- When shaping the stollen dough
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- The finished stollen are placed in the mold.
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- Packaged Rischart Stollen leave the production facility
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- After baking and dusting with granulated sugar, they are halved.
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- They don't skimp on the powdered sugar.
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- Each variety gets its own "Christmas outfit".„
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