Stollen

No Christmas in Germany is complete without wandering through the Christmas markets at night. Under the twinkling Christmas lights, visitors savor the aroma of spices, Glühwein, and Stollen. Stollen is one of Germany's most famous Christmas treats, and it's a moist dough mixture with raisens, currants, almonds, and marzipan under its destinctive coat of icing sugar. But Stollen wasn't always so easy to come by at Christmas. As the advent season was a time for fasting, bakers in medieval Germany were prohibited from using butter in their recipes, so their cakes turned out hard and unappetizing. In the 15th century, the king of Saxony petitioned the Pope to grant him special permission to bake his Stollen with butter. His request wasn't granted until after another 40 years of campaining. Even then, only those rich enough to pay a fee could use the forbidden ingredient, and their money helped build the Freiburg cathedral. The ban on butter was finally lifted completely when Saxony became Protestant. Since then, Stollen recipes have just gotten better and better - these days, Christmas in Germany is almost unthinkable without them.