Christmas Stollen
Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during the Christmas season, when called Weihnachtsstollen or Christstollen…
As a Christmas pastry, Stollen was baked for the first time at the Saxon Royal Court in 1427,[] and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water.
The Advent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed
to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and hard.[]
In the 15th century… the Prince Elector Ernst … decided to remedy this by writing to the Pope in Rome. The Saxon bakers needed to use butter, as oil in Saxony was expensive, hard to come by, and had to be made from turnips… Pope Innocent VIII, in 1490 sent a letter to the Prince, known as the “Butter-Letter” which granted the use of butter.