Erzgebirge: In Annaberg, there are tipsy Christkind butter stollen at Christmas

These days, we hear some curious stories from the Stollen bakers at the Erzgebirge Backwaren-Handwerk GmbH in Annaberg-Buchholz, where around 200,000 butter Stollen roll out of the ovens every year—for local shops and for the rest of the world.

They baked something that would delight gourmets: tipsy Christmas stollen that wanted to take a trip to the center of the earth. At least they made it down to the first level of the over 500-year-old "Im Gößner" silver ore shaft, the UNESCO-listed visitor mine of the Annaberg Ore Mountains Museum. Now they slumber almost 14 meters below the surface, carried down by the hundreds by bakers, step by step, without an elevator.

This traditional delicacy from the mining town where arithmetic master Adam Riese once lived has always been in fierce competition with the famous Dresden Stollen, with both varieties even being devoured in Australia, China, and the USA, assuming Trump doesn't impose tariffs on them. For now, however, they're fragrant and ripening in the mine shaft until their revival, when the Advent sales begin. However, the number of these mine butter stollen is limited, and they cost several euros more than the ones stored above ground.

A strong shot of “pit fire” is added to the dough

The idea for the journey through the mines of these calorie bombs, baked since the Middle Ages as a Lenten Stollen, in the shape of a powdered-sugar-covered Christkind (Christmas stollen), originated with the bakers of Annaberg. They knew how to harness ancient scientific insights from mining, as even the polymath Agricola, who also conducted research in mining and agriculture, had recognized how beneficial a constant 11 degrees Celsius and 95 to 98 percent humidity are for shelf life and the distribution of flavors in foods. Ideal for butter Stollen, which can be kept for a long time, even until Easter if desired. It doesn't even require electricity.

And an aromatically seductive change in the recipe for the equally limited-edition Butterstollen is sure to generate plenty of desire: instead of the homeopathic dose of rum, the dough is now imbued with a hefty shot of "mine fire." This distillate has been made from aromatic herbs from the Ore Mountains since the Middle Ages. The 60% traditional miners' schnapps has a reputation for healing the sick and banishing mountain spirits, fears—and bad moods.