Christmas stollen with butter the traditional pastry

Stollen as a traditional Christmas cake has a very long tradition in Germany and has been known for more than 500 years. It is most popular and delicious in the form of fine butter stollen. The best-known representative of this, even outside Germany, is probably the ‘Dresdener Christstollen’, but nut, poppy seed, marzipan and quark stollen are also common varieties.

According to the guidelines for fine baked goods, a butter stollen must contain at least 40 kg of butter or the equivalent amount of milk fat (based on 100 kg of cereal products and/or starches). In the case of Dresdener Stollen, it is even at least 50 kg of butter. The use of anhydrous, concentrated clarified butter or butterfat has a long tradition in stollen baking. Concentrated butter not only gives stollen of all kinds a particularly good, pure butter flavour, but also helps to keep it fresh for a long time: After baking, the stollen is dipped in liquid butterfat, which seals the surface, adds extra flavour and also prevents it from drying out during maturing and storage. At the same time, it also ensures that the icing sugar adheres better to the stollen when it is finally dusted.

The following rule of thumb can be used to replace butter with concentrated butter in recipes for baked goods: 1 kilogram of butter is equivalent to 820 grams of concentrated butter. The formula for the conversion is: grams of butter according to the recipe x 0.82 = grams of clarified butter required. The necessary weight compensation is achieved by adding the appropriate amount of water or milk.

As a specialist in butter and butterfats for the baking trade, Hoche Butter of course has the right products for the stollen bakery: Whether concentrated butter in 5kg buckets for smaller requirements or concentrated butter in 10kg and 25kg cartons. Also available with the addition of vanillin. The fat content of concentrated (clarified) butter is 99.8 %. It is made from butter from which the water content is almost completely removed. The ‘soft’ quality is additionally whipped with nitrogen. This ensures a creamier consistency and makes portioning easier. Due to the absence of water, anhydrous milk fat can be stored for much longer than normal butter and has a best-before date of 12 months.