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Stollen

Anne Wallace <yaptoyou@mac.com>
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:17:25 -0800
v109.n003.11
Speaking of stollen, my sister's friend bought the most amazing 
Stollen in a small town in West Virginia near the border of Maryland, 
I believe. She would give it to friends as a holiday gift. She would 
not divulge where she bought it.

To this day my sister and I still think it was the best stollen we 
have ever eaten. Unfortunately, the friend no longer gives stollen as 
a gift but we still don't know where she bought it.

Besides a wonderful marzipan filling along with the fruit and nuts, 
the stollen had the most amazing powdered sugar coating on the top. 
It was about an eighth of an inch thick, and still had a powdery 
consistency. Does anyone know how to make such a topping?

anne

p.s. I work for a custom doll maker who sells her dolls for quite a 
lot of money. Yet, she sells her patterns for a very nominal fee, 
posts instructions on how to make the doll on her website, answers 
strangers emails on sewing problems. Why would she "give away" her 
secrets to success? Because she said she can only make so many dolls. 
She knows that the dolls bring people great joy and would rather feel 
good knowing she changed the world for the better in some small way.

Even if all of us here sold the same recipe on an auction site, 
chances are we might end up still not filling the demand.

Why?

Because once the word spreads that this stollen is fabulous, the buzz 
would make people seek out the stollen.

Sharing makes our baking better. Who knows? We may share our ultimate 
recipe and someone in gratitude may share an idea that makes our own 
masterpiece even better.  And realistically, stollen auction buyers 
read this bread-list? How many of us are going to go out and then try 
to start selling a recipe we find here on eBay?

Anyway, I am still very grateful to our poster who shared the 
majority of her great stollen recipe, the wonderful post on the 
history of stollen and the link to a recipe was a thoughtful gesture, 
and I can't wait to try the Cranberry Pannetone.