{"id":819,"date":"2016-12-16T15:34:45","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T14:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=819"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:41:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:41:50","slug":"stollen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/stollen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stollen tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/stollenthumb.jpg\" alt=\"Stollen slices\" class=\"wp-image-4427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/stollenthumb.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/stollenthumb-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Stollen is &#8220;fruit bread&#8221; that typically lurks in the darker corners of the supermarket until Christmas, when it emerges like a glorious butterfly to take its rightful place front and center in the bakery section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kind of a dry fruit loaf<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tastes better than that sounds<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Traditional at Christmas served with mulled wine or punch (or just a coffee)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Book a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiqets.com\/en\/concerts-opera-vienna-tickets-l206741\/?partner=visitingvienna&amp;tq_campaign=LG_Xmas\" rel=\"sponsored\">concert experience<\/a>* for your Vienna trip<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/christmas-in-vienna\/\">Christmas in Vienna<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/lebkuchen-gingerbread\/\">Lebkuchen<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s a Stollen?<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/stollen.jpg\" alt=\"A stollen\" class=\"wp-image-45140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/stollen.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/stollen-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Dusted and ready for consumption)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of a Stollen as the love child of a fruit cake and a loaf of bread: it&#8217;s typically baked from a yeasty dough (replete with dried fruit soaked in rum) and covered in icing sugar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you&#8217;d then expect, you eat a Stollen in slices and mostly without further embellishment, though some people apply butter and jam. It often accompanies coffee or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/weihnachtspunsch-christmas-punch\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"233\">Christmas punch<\/a>, so forms an integral component of the end-of-year bakery selection alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/lebkuchen-gingerbread\/\">Lebkuchen<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/christmas-biscuits\/\">Christmas biscuits<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/spekulatius-biscuits\/\">Spekulatius<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As with just about every baked product in this part of the world, you find different varieties in Vienna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Christmas, for example, you often see marzipan, poppy seed or nut versions, though the kind with dried fruit remains the classic.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/stollenslices.jpg\" alt=\"Slices of stollen\" class=\"wp-image-45141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/stollenslices.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/stollenslices-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Slicing reveals the dried fruit within)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This delight has been around for centuries in central Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The earliest known written mention apparently involved an obligation placed on 14th-century bakers in Naumburg (just southwest of Leipzig in today&#8217;s Germany) to deliver a Stollen or its equivalent to the local bishop at Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Better than another pair of novelty socks.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Stollen now has many fans in the UK and USA, too, largely because you can make it quite easily. We bake them as seasonal gifts for friends and family each year, delivered along with some homemade jam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do you say Stollen?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>At first glance, Stollen seems an easy word to say in Austrian-flavoured German: &#8220;stoll&#8221; to rhyme with &#8220;doll&#8221; (British English) and an &#8220;en&#8221; like in &#8220;burden&#8221; (ditto).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;st&#8221; has a &#8220;shh&#8221; at the start though &#8211; &#8220;shhtollen&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more insights into such seasonal fare, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/christmas-in-vienna\/#food\">food and drink section<\/a> of my Christmas overview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stollen is &#8220;fruit bread&#8221; that typically lurks in the darker corners of the supermarket until Christmas, when it emerges like a glorious butterfly to take its rightful place front and center in the bakery section. What&#8217;s a Stollen? (Dusted and ready for consumption) Think of a Stollen as the love child of a fruit cake [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-food","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89239,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions\/89239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}