There’s the old holiday joke that there is only one holiday fruitcake and it is passed from family to family every year. Not true. There are 1,487 American-style fruitcakes in all existence, and they are passed around from family to family every year. (really people, if you are going to share a suburban legend make it plausible!)

But today is not about American fruitcake, it’s about the German variety: Stollen. There are some things that the Germans do better than Americans: building luxury cars, incredible rail systems, of course Stollen. There are fruit cakes called “stolen” available in some markets this time of year but other than a name and shape, these carb filled blobs have about as much to do with the German tradition as those Volkswagens that were built in the old VW factory in Westmoreland PA (remember that debacle? Ugh!) The great news for this holiday season is that Rachel Crampsey of the Montclair Bread Company has uncovered an authentic recipe for Dresdner Stollen and the results are ausgezeichnet!