Last Updated on December 9, 2021
When the holiday season comes around, Aldi stocks plenty of German-made baked goods that include cookies and gingerbread. Many of these treats are under the Aldi Winternacht private label (Winternacht means “winter night” in German), which encompasses Christmas cookies, chocolate, and other treats that show up only around Christmas time. The Winternacht spekulatius spiced cookies are among our favorites, as they’re perfect paired with a cup of hot cocoa, tea, or coffee. I also like Aldi Winternacht Panettone. Most recently, I decided to try another baked good that has a bit of a cult following among Aldi shoppers: stollen imported from Germany.
Stollen has been around for hundreds of years. It originally was a bland bread because butter was not allowed to be used during the time of Advent, which was similar to Lent in that people were required to abstain from indulging in rich foods.
Stollen today is a yeast-based cake-like bread studded with nuts and dried or candied fruit, along with spices. Consider it a cousin to the English fruitcake or the Italian panettone, to name a few similar breads from other parts of the world. After baking, stollen is coated in butter and rolled in powdered sugar. Tradition has it that this is supposed to be reminiscent of the infant Christ being wrapped in swaddling cloths, or the sugar may also remind one of a snowy German scene. Sometimes there’s marzipan in the center of stollen, and sometimes not. Ironically, the longest stollen ever baked was done so by Lidl, one of the biggest competitors to Aldi in Europe.
Winternacht Stollen cost $5.49 for a 26.4-ounce package at Aldi at the time of publication. Aldi sells it in several varieties. I bought the marzipan variety based on recommendations from Aldi fans on social media, but there are also butter almond and cherry varieties. As mentioned earlier, this is a product of Germany.
I’m not completely sure, but stollen appears to be a Seasonal Favorite at Aldi, which means it’s in stores for longer than an Aldi Find, but it’s not sold all year. Generally, this shows up in time for the Christmas season.
Ingredients for the marzipan stollen are wheat flour, raisins, sugar, palm fat, water, glucose fructose syrup, dextrose, almonds, rapeseed oil, orange peels, sorbitol, lemon peels, wheat starch, yeast, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, sodium stearoyl lactylate, natural flavoring, salt, and fully hydrogenated palm fat.
If you’re looking out for allergens, the marzipan stollen contains wheat and tree nuts (almonds). It may contain other tree nuts, eggs, and milk.
Winternacht Marzipan Stollen nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
There are about nine servings per package, and one serving (83 grams) of marzipan stollen has an indulgent 330 calories, 13 grams of total fat (17% DV), 6 grams of saturated fat (30% DV), 125 mg of sodium (5% DV), 49 grams of total carbohydrates (18% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 30 grams of total sugars, 17 grams of added sugars (34% DV), and 4 grams of protein.
Full disclosure: no one in my household has ever tried traditional stollen like this, or fruitcake, or anything similar. Fruitcake, of course, has a reputation for not being that great, and I’ve read mixed reviews about the Aldi stollen on social media, so I wasn’t sure what my family would think of it. (One of the nice things about shopping at Aldi is that it gives us opportunities to try new foods without breaking the budget.)
Sliced stollen, ready to serve.
It was surprisingly not bad. Different, but not bad. My kids tried it and declared they liked it, and they went back for second helpings. The bread is extremely dense and heavy, mildly sweet, and dotted with chopped fruit and nuts. The marzipan rope through the middle adds interesting texture and flavor (but remember not all Aldi stollen has marzipan).
The stollen can be eaten sliced and plain (the BBC recommends it alongside a good cup of coffee), or it can be eaten sliced and buttered. It can also be slightly warmed in the microwave to enhance the stollen’s aromatic spices. I tried it sliced and unheated, and then I tried it buttered, and I tried it warmed. I actually prefer eating it at room temperature and unbuttered. However you eat it, I do recommend enjoying alongside a hot drink.
I’m not sure this will become an annual tradition for us, but it was interesting to try, and I was pleasantly surprised that my family liked this bread as much as they did. I’m also curious now to try homemade stollen or to try stollen from a quality bakery, which I’ve read is even better than store-bought stollen.
The Verdict:
Winternacht Stollen comes in several varieties, including marzipan, butter almond, and cherry. We tried the marzipan stollen and it was unexpectedly good. This bread is dense, mildly sweet, and studded with bits of diced fruit and nuts. The outer sugar coating is a nice touch as well. If you’re interested in trying a classic German baked good, the Aldi version is worth considering. Best enjoyed with a cup of coffee or other warm beverage.
overpriced raisen cake that is dried out.
had this a few years ago and you actually recd a bit of marzipan.
the marzipan today is so little as to not mean much.
this cake is overpriced. worth about 2.79.
I buy several and freeze them, thaw them in microwave and they come out delicious, we love them.
Had the stollen and it was very good . Can’t wait for the holidays.
It’s something I buy every year and ration carefully…agreed, the calories are definitely indulgent. And I’m the only one eating it but I do look forward to it every year!
I look forward to Aldi stollen every year. It’s become a holiday staple in my home.
I bake stollen on Christmas Eve that we eat on Christmas morning, with a pot of Constant Comment tea. It’s a family tradition, been doing it for 40 years now. And while we all agree that the homemade stollen is far better than the store bought, my husband and son always look forward to getting the “extra” stollen when it shows up at Aldi. Heh.
Love the stollen . ..Bought it every year for my Mother-in-law in Aurora llinois. i have been watching for it here I Punta Gorda Florida. I will be buying it today .Just for my husband and I now.
I look forward every year to the arrival of the stollen at Aldi. They were a few weeks later than usual coming in to my store this year and was concerned they might not have them this year due to supply chain issues. I buy several to have for my family, and additional ones to gift to other family members and friends. I buy them as soon as they become stocked at Aldi as they are best if they “age” from that time until being eaten at Christmas, though they are perfectly delicious to eat right away. I usually have one to open to eat when first purchased, a couple that are held until Christmas and into the New Year (keep at room temp), and freeze one to pull out and age a month before Easter as an added treat. Having lived in Germany for a number of years I find them very comparable to what I bought at the local markets there and definitely recommend. My favorite is the cherry. While visiting in Texas for Thanksgiving, I brought one for a German friend there who was thrilled to receive it to have for Christmas and commented how lucky that I have Aldi to shop at as they aren’t in her area. I agree!
Agreed….actually we really liked it, and was even better the fallowing days. Liked it so much that today I picked up 3 more loaves @ half price…….Amazing Aldi !
Sliced in to my last Stollen in my freezer. Now I have to wait until end of November to re-supply. These are wonderful.
How can I find out when Stollen is in stock? I go to my local store periodically but is there an easier way to know when it is in stock?
It’s a Christmas item at Aldi, so it should show up probably sometime in November when Aldi starts stocking Christmas products.
Call the store
Ask,last week,when stolen will be in.For years,I will get12 or so,for the family,friends and as gifts.Put 1 or2 in the freezer, I’m a diabetic, so I have to pace myself.
This year is my 2nd time buying the marzipan stollen. I wondered if the outer coating was powdered sugar because it doesn’t taste very sweet to me. I bought it about two weeks ago and had my first slice yesterday. I might try something other than the marzipan when I go back to Aldi this week.
It’s been a couple of years since I first tried the Aldi’s Stollen. I was at a friend’s house and she had the Marzipan Stollen and it was so good that I went to Aldi’s and bought the Cherry Stollen. Both of them were delicious, and moist. *I grew up on Claxton Fruit Cake and, “I’ve never met a fruitcake I didn’t like.” With a Claxton Fruit Cake, you have a bunch of fruit and nuts and little cake. The Aldi’s Stollen has a soft fruit filling. I’m not sure I would call it a fruitcake, but yeah, it is cake with a fruit filling, so I guess it’s a fruitcake also. “auf jeden Fall” they are delicious!
Picked up one of the last almond stollen at my local Aldi (on sale for 1.72) it was my first time trying this item and was not sure what to expect. It is really tasty and I will definitely try other flavors next year.