From Germany to Queens, the Best Stollen in Town

The Deligram is an ode to the artisanal food makers of New York. Two weeks ago we featured Kate Kooks and Woojae Chung, a mother-son duo making kimchi and other Korean dishes out of their new storefront in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. This week’s focus is on Sweet & Salzig, Katja Haecker’s seasonal brand offering German baked goods in Queens.

The Product: Traditional, seasonal German desserts including stollen, a cake made with organic, high quality ingredients such as fruit, almonds, Austrian rum, and sometimes marzipan, and Christmas cookies, like German zimtsternle (almond cinnamon stars) and Swiss läckerli (honey lebkuchen).
How To Buy: Order at sweetandsalzig.com before December 15th to receive in time for Christmas.
Price: $18-$40.

I come from the advertising world and film, but baking is a life-long passion, learned from my mother and grandmother (who worked in the industry). I started baking officially here as Sweet & Salzig in 2015, but I baked before for friends. When I was invited to dinner parties, I always brought a cake or stollen. Stollen is stressful to make -- there are long shifts, several to bake them and many to rest, but once it’s done, they’re resting and ready to be sent out. It’s an easier product to produce in that sense; it has a long shelf life and it can be shipped. 

I combined a recipe from my grandmother who is from South Germany with the recipe of a friend’s grandmother from East Germany. I did a big test in the summer of 2017 with lots of stollen variations. There’s a big discussion in Germany; how long should stollen rest, two weeks or four weeks? I’m in the four-week party. It needs to rest in a cool room. That’s how they rise the best. My father was a big stollen fan, so he tasted it, and I had a questionnaire about flavors, spices, texture. I made a science project out of it. In winter of 2017, I decided to focus on my Christmas baking instead of selling cakes in market stands here and there in Manhattan. Cakes need to be eaten fresh, and you can’t really ship them so I changed to a holiday season business where I offer my stollen and cookies. 

I offer different kinds of stollen—one with lard and one without, which I call “vegetarian.” Traditionally, they use lard, it’s a very old school way to do stollen. In America, people sometimes don’t want lard, but I had some customers in America saying, “Don’t you put lard in your stollen? If it doesn’t have lard it’s not a real stollen!” So, I offer [both].

I would like to get stollen in more stores. I ship online in America, and I sell in stores in L.A., San Francisco, and New York. It’s tricky, but I would like to sell more and maybe at the end I end up with my own bakery. I’m currently focused on Christmas, and I would maybe like to add more cookies. This year I also added a walnut cake from Switzerland, which is shippable. That’s the thing‚ I have to look at what has a longer shelf life. The walnut cake lasts for two or three weeks. It’s compact and will not break easily when shipping if you pack it right. 

I had a shared kitchen in Brooklyn, but it closed down so now I’m producing in Tiny Drumsticks kitchen in Long Island City, Queens. My aim is to expand more and maybe open another kitchen, or bake between the west and east coasts to see how it grows. I would love to open my own kitchen in Manhattan, but rents and costs are too crazy so that has to wait.

Greatest hit: This year, it seems like more people are going for the lard stollen.

Most underrated product: They’re all super delicious! Personally, I think the läckerli [cookies] are really great.

Tips to best enjoy your products: Stollen has a shelf life of three months, but you can also extend the shelf life by freezing it. Cut it in several pieces and freeze the pieces airtight, and thaw it overnight at room temperature. And always cut from the middle towards the edges, and move the two parts together to retain freshness. The cookies are freshly made with a shelf life of three weeks, but for me they lose the flavor after a couple of weeks and get harder. If they’ve been sitting out for a couple days, you put them in some tupperware with a slice of toast and in two hours they’re soft again. 

Favorite places to eat in NY: Wallsé has the best wiener schnitzel in NYC—the real deal. Brunetti Pizza and Ovest Pizza. I eat a lot of French food, so for my French fix: Le Singe Vert, Lucien, Pastis, and LouLou. Bareburger for my American burger fix. Schilling is another German restaurant—they do a lovely Thanksgiving menu, too. Grainne Café—I love the crepes, especially the one with beurre and sucre. “Butter is good for you!” is my saying. And Spice Thai is my ‘life-saver’ after long baking shifts. 

Food makers to follow: La Bergamote for cakes. Patisserie Chanson for a really good Kouign-amann! RedVelvetNYC. Jessie’s Nutty Cups. Sarah Owens bakes very good bread! Lokokitchen has amazing decorations. And Dolci Italian Bakehouse.