Stollen is Germany's Christmas bread/cake and this quark stollen is an easier, quicker style, still packed with flavor. This version is made with prunes, lemon zest and cardamom and is wonderfully moist and aromatic. A delicious seasonal treat.

slices in front of rest of whole stollen with prunes on wooden board.

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Stollen is for me something that brings back lots of delicious memories. I travelled to Austria and Germany relatively often as a child for vacations, but then had the opportunity to live in Germany for a semester when I was a student as well.

I was in a relatively small town in the former East Germany, which was still developing some of it's infrastructure post-reunification. But it still had so many of the German Christmas traditions like a market with beautiful handmade wooden decorations and delicious food for sale.

slice of traditional German stollen with dried plums beside glass of gluhwein

German Christmas traditions

German Christmas celebrations feel much less of a commercial celebration than what is more typical in the UK or US, at least at that time. Decorations are bright, but not too flashy and the market is one of the big draws in many towns. While they sell gifts, it's more of an artisans market. Stall are filled with handmade wooden ornaments, candles, small-batch cookies and more.

Then there were the delicious smells from the food areas, which lured me in more than once. Though almost better, as a student, I happily discovered that most cafes in the town gave you a slice of stollen each time you bought a coffee or mug of mulled wine. Which for stollen fans like me was a huge win.

slices of quark stollen in front of loaf on board.

Learning about German Christmas baking

Our teacher at the university did one lesson all about German Christmas baking. Linguistically, it was an exercise in dictation and understanding how German recipes are written. But it was also a lovely sharing of traditional recipes, including a number of cookies (like the cinnamon star cookies, Zimtsterne and German ginger cookies, Ingwerplätchen I have shared) and a couple of versions of stollen.

This stollen recipe is only a slight adaptation of the original our teacher described, and the result is every bit as delicious as any stollen I had while I was there. It's packed with fruit, a touch of spice and a core of soft marzipan.

Is stollen the same as fruit cake?

While stollen shares some of the same ingredients, especially those versions made with candied peel, stollen is really more of a bread with fruit in it than a fruit cake. It is typically less sweet, less dense and less rich. But don't worry, it's one tasty treat (and to many, myself included, possibly better).

Variations in stollen

You'll find a few stollen variations, with some differences being more obvious than others. Probably the most obvious one is whether it has marzipan in the middle or not. Personally, I much prefer the marzipan versions both for the added flavor and the mix of textures. I've added some here, though you can skip if you are not a fan.

Another reasonable obvious variation is in the fruity additions. Many versions have a combination of raisins and candied peel in them. However I love this version our teacher shared that used prunes/dried plums, lemon zest and cardamom. It's a little less typical but really tasty.

Finally, probably the least obvious as an eater, but clear as a baker, is whether the stollen is made with yeast or not. A yeasted stollen is maybe a little more common, but you also find a style called Quarkstollen that uses quark to give some tang, along with baking powder as raising agent. As a result, it's much quicker to make, but still really tasty.

What is quark?

Quark, if you are unfamiliar with it, is very common in German baking and is a kind of cottage cheese but a little different from those kinds you may be more familiar with.

I admit I was surprised to find quark in one of my local supermarkets when I first made this, though sadly that's no longer the case. More recently, I have used a next-best alternative of 9 parts ricotta and 1 part sour cream. If you can find quark, great, but if not that works pretty well.

How to make quark stollen

Making this stollen is much like making any other fruit cake or non-yeast bread. The only bit that's a little different is adding the marzipan and the final moulding part.

You just mix together the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, fruit and nuts and combine. Then flatten out the dough and fold it over to make the typical stollen shape, with marzipan in the middle if you are using. Don't worry that it seems a bit high - it will kind of "melt" as it cooks.

Once it has baked and cooled, you brush it with melted butter and scatter with confectioner's sugar/icing sugar. It looks like a little dusting of snow. Don't be tempted to skip this, it really finishes off the cake. But also don't do too early on it just melts in if the stollen is too hot.

This quark stollen is both pretty easy to make and full of delicious flavor. The smells are fantastic as it bakes and it tastes every bit as good as you enjoy a slice. It's soft from the quark, and the cardamon and lemon are aromatic without being overpowering. It's well worth finding any excuse you can to make and enjoy.

slice of stollen with a glass of gluhwein on small plate with cinnamon sticks behind

Try some more traditional Christmas baking:

Panettone (Italian Christmas bread)
Brunkager (Danish spiced cookies)
Kolachy cookies (light cookies with a jam filling)
Basler brunsli - Swiss chocolate almond cookies
Plus get more ideas in the Christmas recipes archives. For another festive baking idea, try my cinnamon star bread.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

German quark stollen with prunes

This version of Germany's Christmas cake/bread is wonderfully aromatic, tasty and easy to make.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1

Total Time1 20

Course: Snack

Cuisine: German

Servings: + approx

Calories: 252kcal

Author: Caroline

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Ingredients

For the marzipan

½ cup almond flour ground almonds
½ cup confectioners sugar icing sugar
1 tablespoon egg white 1 tablespoon is approximately ½ of one egg white

For the stollen

2 ¾ oz prunes (dried plums), pitted
1 egg
1 pinch ground saffron
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup sugar (or less, see notes)
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom I tend to crack open a few pods and grind the seeds in pestle and mortar
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 lemon zest
8 oz quark or replace with ricotta with a little sour cream (approx 9:1 ratio)
2 oz unsalted butter just melted so liquid but not hot
½ tablespoon milk
¼ cup chopped walnuts

To top/for dusting

1 tablespoon butter approximately
1 tablespoon confectioners sugar approximately

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300F/150C and line a good-sized baking sheet.
If including marzipan, mix together the almond meal, confectioners sugar and egg white and bring it together in a ball. Knead slightly and form into a short log, around 1in/2.5cm thick.
For the stollen itself, first chop the prunes/dried plums into small pieces, each prune into roughly 4-6 pieces.
Lightly whisk the egg and saffron together in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, cardamom, nutmeg and lemon zest. Watch with the lemon zest in particular that it is well distributed as it can clump together.
Add the egg mixture, quark, butter, milk, walnuts and chopped dried plums. Then mix until well combined but try not to overmix.
Next, lightly flour a work surface and turn the mixture out. Flatten it out into a circle around 1in/2.5cm thick. Lay the marzipan log in the middle, if using, and fold one side over the top. If not using marzipan, still fold the dough over to the other side, stopping a bit short of the edge. Gently use the back of your fingers to seal the top and bottom layers - it should end up slightly domed rather than very thick to the edge.
Place on a lined baking sheet with plenty of room for it to spread and bake for 60-70 min until gently golden around the outside and a skewer comes out clean. If you have used marzipan, then don't test in the middle but a bit to the side as the marzipan will probably make it tricky to tell.
Allow to cool on a baking rack.
Once cool, brush the outside with melted butter to give it a light coating then sprinkle with confectioners sugar by rubbing it through a sieve to ensure nice and fine. Serve in slices.

Video

Notes

My original German recipe includes sugar in the stollen dough but I have also made this without sugar, just relying on the sweetness from the marzipan and dusting on top and it was still delicious. Sweeten up to your taste, I'd say no more than as written but none or part of this will also work (more will make it more cake-like than stollen should be).

Nutrition

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This post was originally posted in December 2015 and has been updated, primarily with new photos and video as well as additional information.

Quark stollen with prunes (German Christmas bread)

German Christmas traditions

Learning about German Christmas baking

Is stollen the same as fruit cake?

Variations in stollen

What is quark?

How to make quark stollen

Try some more traditional Christmas baking:

German quark stollen with prunes

Ingredients

For the marzipan

For the stollen

To top/for dusting

Instructions

Video

Notes

Nutrition

Remember to pin for later!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

German Christmas traditions

Learning about German Christmas baking

Is stollen the same as fruit cake?

Variations in stollen

What is quark?

How to make quark stollen

Try some more traditional Christmas baking:

German quark stollen with prunes

Ingredients

For the marzipan

For the stollen

To top/for dusting

Instructions

Video

Notes

Nutrition

Remember to pin for later!

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply