On the Saturday before the first Advent, the Annaberg Christmas Market is opened when the first cut is made into the enormous ten-kilogram stollen from the bakery of Annaberger Backwaren GmbH. The "Stollen Girl" presides over the traditional cutting of the stollen every year.
Everyone has their own secret family recipe for the most traditional Christmas pastry of the region. The basic ingredients of the traditional butter stollen: Flour, sugar, candied lemon peel, sultanas, a bit of rum, sweets, and bitter almonds. And butter of course. Plenty mixed in and plenty on top - otherwise the stollen will be too dry. Each year, Annaberger Backwaren processes approximately 200 tons of stollen dough, that's enough for over 200,000 loafs of butter stollen. This requires 45 tons of butter, 25 tons of candied lemon and orange peel, and 15 tons of almonds to name a few.
The stollen for the Annaberg Christmas Market is baked as early as September, since it has to sit and mature for at least three weeks. It does best under cool, dry conditions. This year the company is sending entire pallets of stollen to Canada and North America. Shipments to Australia and Japan have also been packed.
