Stollen is a cake baked around Christmas time and Dresden claims to be the home of the Stollen. The word “Stollen” comes from a Old High German word stollo which means post (as in porch post). In Dresden they call this kind of cake Striezel. Its history dates back to 1329 when such a cake was given to a bishop. In those days the Catholics used to do a Christmas lent in the weeks before Christmas. During that lent it was forbidden to consume milk and butter, so the first stollens were vegan, containing only water oil and oat flour. When the nobility complained about the horrible taste of those cakes, one of their electors wrote a so called “butter letter” to the pope and asked if they could use butter instead of oil. That was the end of the vegan stollen tradition at least in Dresden, Saxony. They started making the traditional Dresdner Stollen with butter.

Today stollen is made in every part of Germany. It is a traditional Christmas cake still and different regions have their local specialities. Non of them is vegan. You can find stollen with almonds, with poppy seeds, with butter “only”, with marzipan, raisins or nuts. They all are made from a sweet and very dense yeast dough, and the Dresdner Stollen contains tons of butter, dried fruit, candied lemon and orange peel, and almonds. They are baked at home or sold in bakeries or on Christmas markets. (The Dresdner Christmas market is even called Strietzelmarkt, named after the famous cake.)

Because of the bitter tasting fruit peels I have never been a huge fan of the Dresdner Stollen and similar versions of this cake. I have always preferred poppy seed stollen, which is also made of a buttery, heavy yeast dough. The only person in or family who made these cakes every year was my grand mother, who also explained the ingredients to me when I was a child and that you could keep this cake for months. But she never made poppy seed stollen as far as I remember. Because my grand mother doesn’t bake that much any more these days and because her cake wouldn’t be vegan it’s time to start my own tradition, I guess.
My stollen is different from the regular cakes in preparation. It is a totally quick and easy recipe and this cake can be stored for months as well, although you will have to put it in the freezer.

Mohnstollen (makes two loafs)
(Poppy Seed Stollen)

dough:
500g flour [4 cups] (I used half pastry, half whole wheat flour)
1 pkg. baking powder [15 g or 0.5 oz]
75 g sugar [1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons]
125 ml non-dairy milk [1/2 cup]
75 g raisins [1/2 cup]
140 g soy yoghurt [1/2 cup]
1 pkg. vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few drops of bitter almond flavor (or 1 teaspoon almond extract)
75 g oil [1/3 cup]

filling:
50 g poppy seeds [1/4 cup]
50 g soy yoghurt [3 tablespoons]
30 g sugar [2 tablespoons]
15 g corn starch [1 1/2 tablespoons]

Sift together flour and baking powder, add sugar, milk, soy yoghurt, vanilla and oil. Mix with the help of a hand held mixer or knead the dough with your hands. Add raisins and knead again until the dough is firm and resembles a bread dough. It shouldn’t be sticky.

Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and grease 2 bread loaf pans.
Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Divide the cake dough into two pieces and shape each of them into a rectangle, about 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick. Spread half of the filling mixture on each rectangle and roll them into two log shapes. Place in the loaf pans and transfer to oven. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 180°C (350°F) and bake for another 15 minutes. Have an eye on your cakes and if they start to get too dark, cover them with aluminium foil. Remove from oven, let cool for ten minutes and then remove from pans. Let cool completely and then enjoy a totally untraditional version of a traditional cake!