December 20, 2013 - 7:21pm
What do you think of Aldi's Stollen?
I haven't tasted really good stollen since I can remember. My wife picked up a $5 cellophane wrapped stollen from Aldi and we tried it out this evening. I thought it tasted damn good!! But I have not benchmark to compare with. If anything, it reminded me of a less dense version of Christmas fruitcake (taste wise). Anyone care to comment? Can I make a better stollen than the people at Aldi?
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Which one? Our's sells two:
Marzipanstollen and Butterstollen.
The first one is without real butter but with vegetable oil. The second one is without real marzipan. I'd go with the Butterstollen. Butter is a must. I've had much worse ones from local artisan bakeries.
But I still think you can really do better if you take real butter, real marzipan, good candied fruits and a mild milky sourdough (long rise (5.5 hours) at a cool place that the butter does not melt) no baking powder and very little yeast (this year I did it sourdough only but didn't try it yet)
But this really will be time consuming and if you start today (Saturday noon where I live) with the soudough you will be baking on the 22nd and the first time you can taste it will be the 29th. Too late for Christmas ;) :(
And the price of the ingredients also will me much higher.
But beware: there are two Aldis: North and South + Hofer Austria. They have different products.
I torn the label off before realizing I should read about what's in the loaf. I do believe it is the Holly Lane version only because it seems familiar. One reviewer says this about the Marzipan version,
"A classic Aldi sleeper product. A very pleasant sweet fruit bread with just enough going on. Not as overblown or nut crusted as its big supermarket rivals but then, at a third of the price, it doesn't need to be. A cracking product."
have some great products (not saying that all they sell is good) and I personally think their Stollen (I've only tasted te Marzipanstollen) are quite good, certainly given the pricing. As adri said, I've had worse from supposedly 'artisanal' bakeries that were sold at a multiple of the price. Sure, you can do better yourself but I hate to bring it, you're too late....it should ripen at least a couple of weeks, if you just bake it and taste it it'll be good, let it rest for a couple of weeks and it'll be spectacular.