A box arrived via UPS today and I figured it was just another Christmas present that my husband ordered from Amazon; except that the sender was Big Sur Bakery. Our friends live in Napa, CA and were just married in Big Sur, CA in August. Their reception was held at Big Sur Bakery and Café. The wedding was lovely, the scenery was amazing and the food was fantastic. So, we ripped open the box to find a loaf of sorts in a cloth bag tied with string. It was a stollen: the topic of today’s Tidbit. Stollen is a German sweet bread that contains nuts, fruit, and/or raisins. The label read that it was brushed in butter and coated in sugar–and I do mean coated. I had envisioned a cloyingly sweet “fruitcake-like” bread. After cutting into it, I was pleasantly surprised. It was more bread than cake, and despite the copious amount of sugar on the outside, there was a subtle sweetness. The rum soaked raisins lent just a hint of rum and the candied citrus gave a “pop” to nearly every bite. There were no nuts in this version.