Stollen

Stollen is a dense, buttery fruit bread wrapped around a hidden core of marzipan and dusted heavily in icing sugar. It's Germany's Christmas loaf, and unlike most baked goods, it's deliberately made weeks ahead — a fresh Stollen is considered a mistake, not a virtue.

What it actually is

A dense, only lightly leavened dough, rich with butter, is worked through with raisins, candied peel and other candied fruit, then wrapped around a log of marzipan running through the centre and shaped into the loaf's traditional oblong, folded form, said to echo a swaddled infant. After baking, it's brushed generously with melted butter while still warm and buried under a thick coat of icing sugar.

The butter-and-sugar coating isn't just decoration — it seals the crumb and is a large part of why the loaf keeps so well, often improving in flavour over several weeks as it sits, wrapped, before it's cut.

How it's served

• Sliced thin, in modest rounds rather than thick wedges — it's a rich, dense loaf.
• Weeks after baking, traditionally, having been left to mature wrapped in a cool place.
• With coffee, as an afternoon treat through the whole Christmas season rather than a single-day dessert.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag gluten, egg, dairy and almonds; the dough, butter coating and marzipan core carry all four.
• Say if your Stollen is made in-house and rested, since the aging process is a genuine point of craft worth naming.
• Mention the marzipan core, since not every fruit loaf has one and its absence changes the dish.
• Note that it keeps for weeks, which makes it a reliable seasonal item to have on hand rather than something baked fresh to order.