DURHAM, N.C. — Everything is big around the holidays, from gatherings to the amount of food on the table. It’s also a big time for small businesses such as bakeries as they rush to fill holiday orders.

What You Need To Know

  • Bakeries are working overtime to fulfill holiday orders

  • A popular product at Ninth Street Bakery in Durham is called stollen

  • It’s a German sweet bread, traditionally baked during the Advent season

  • One additional challenge owners face this year are rising costs for ingredients

Ninth Street Bakery in Durham is working full steam ahead to get products to its customers. One thing it’s known for this time of year is a product called stollen.

The traditional holiday bread has German roots and is full of different ingredients like raisins, almonds, candied fruit, marzipan and cinnamon. Owner Ari Berenbaum says it’s a super popular product.

“For some reason this year, we can’t keep the stollen in stock at our stores,” Berenbaum said. “So we are trying to make as much as we can with each bake.” 

One challenge making that a bit harder this year is the costs for ingredients.

“Eggs, for instance, were like $1.50 a dozen and $1.85 wholesale,” Berenbaum said. “Now they are up to $3.50, so that’s a pretty steep one ... butter, sugar, flour, everything has gone up a lot.”

Berenbaum says it’s something seen industry-wide, and ultimately those costs trickle down to the customer.

“We have done some mild price increases for our items, so we will likely have to readjust in January,” he said.

Berenbaum says he thinks they will see an increase in inflation and prices year-over-year for at least another six months.

Ninth Street Bakery makes its stollen until Christmas.

“The stollen, we do that four days a week during the holidays, so it’s kind of a lot for us on top of our regular production,” Berenbaum said. “The staff is really coming up and pulling their weight, so I am really proud of them.”