A gift of Stollen, very disappointing!

Oh yes those cake shops/ fancy tea rooms in Germany and Austria and France too, fab u Lous !

A few years ago there was such a run on stollen bites in Aldi messages were going back and forth on my dd local group if any were spotted in other branches.

ooooh - thanks for reminding me! I loved stollen bites. If I remember rightly, have had delicious ones from Tesco in the past - very moist and moreish!!

I always find the bites and slices much better. A large stollen is always a disappointment. I didn't even like them when we lived in Germany.

I love Stollen from either Lidl or Aldi, I think the small bites are the best.
I agree that continental cakes and pastries are often disappointingly dry, can’t stand Panattone for that reason.
I think the German and Austrian desserts and cakes are the exception. Some if those chocolate, fruit and nut confections are scrumptious.

I'm not a lover of stollen but Aldi's slices are very nice and not too stodgy.

Reminds me of this-

Lidl’s deluxe with Rum are gorgeous £2.99 for 12. We love them

Toast it and put butter on it. silverlining48ooh I'd love a piece of barmbrack now with a cuppa

Just finished making 2 stollen. I’ve made them every Christmas since I lived in Switzerland and acquired a taste for them. I’ve tried a new recipe so hoping it’s as good as my old style.

Sorry you were disappointed, Witzend.

As Sodapop said they vary greatly in our shops but the best are delicious. My favourite is Sainsburys ‘taste the difference hand decorated fruit and nut stollen’. It is expensive but every Christmas we treat ourselves. It is the very opposite of dry! Do give it a go!

I made stollen one year. It was quite a faff but was good. Yes a lot drier than out brandy laden cake. But wasn't that nice that they wanted to give the gift and something from their own culture.

I agree that a little butter improves a dry stollen.

I further agree that the ones from Germany are often drier … but none the less enjoyable.

I will add one to my pre Christmas grocery order.

Damn! We don’t have Lidl here but plenty of ALDIs.

Doodledog

I have done extensive research into this issue (), and IMO Lidl stollen bites are the best, with M&S and Aldi runners up. I've never had one from Dresden (or anywhere else in actual Germany), as opposed to imported ones, though.

Husband and I have also sacrificed ourselves to the extensive research and agree wholeheartedly, Lidl is definitely the winner Aldi's and Marks decent runners-up. I did have an elderly German friend many years ago who always served stollen she brought back from Germany every November.... it was dry and always disappointing.

try it with some custard on ok not traditional but custard always cheers things up to my mind

Doodledog
Well somebody has to.??

I have done extensive research into this issue (), and IMO Lidl stollen bites are the best, with M&S and Aldi runners up. I've never had one from Dresden (or anywhere else in actual Germany), as opposed to imported ones, though.

I am also a fan of stollen. Like the OP I have come across dry, stale ones and prefer to buy mine from Lidl.
I have tried to make them in the past. It is a bit like making hot cross buns - too much like a chore.

I love Stollen but not all of them are as good as they could be. I have found a wide variation in supermarkets here. Some are really dry and tasteless, the smaller ones do seem to be better than the large ones I find.

We ate a Dresdener stollen over a year out of date and it tasted fine. It was in a cotton bag inside a very nice tin box.
We still have the box and the drawstring bag but the stollen got eaten, every crumb.
The bites are nice too. I LOVE marzipan.

Aldi ones are lovely! (from someone who doesn't even like marzipan!)

I got a box of stollen slices from Waitrose last week. They weren't in the least dry or stodgy, had some fruit in them and certainly didn't need to be buttered. I enjoyed demolishing them.

We were gifted a traditional German Stollen two years ago by visiting relatives from Europe. It was 12 months out of date! The birds enjoyed it though ?‍♀️

silverlining48

I always get a ( couple of) stollen from Aldi, they do the regular £2 and luxury £4 option. I usually buy regular and yes it is not a fruit cake as we have so maybe a bit dryer, we all love it.
Perhaps if you like custard put that on, or ice cream , jam or some sort of choc sauce. Butter it perhaps. I am sure it woukd make a lovely bread and butter pudding. Jamie Oliver used a panettone last night and it looked delicious.
We had one sent from Berlin a few years ago, Dresden stollen are supposed to be the best and it was a little drier than dear old Aldi. Presumably being German Lidl will do it too. It us the traditional German Christmas cake and we have it every year.

One of my family in Germany got me a Dresdner Stollen, it was drier but delicious . The tin is beautiful also.