Lebkuchen, German gingerbread-style biscuits are easy and great fun to make, especially around the festive period.
Lebkuchen vs. gingerbreads
Lebkuchen are quite similar to gingerbread cookies but softer, spicier and much easier to make. They are chewy rather than brittle, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to try to build even a small house out of them.
The mix of spices is also quite different. Not just ginger, but a melange of cardamom, coriander, allspice, pepper, aniseed, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and pepper or at least some of those. In Germany you can buy a ready-mixed lebkuchen spice, but mixing your own is not a hard task – as long as your spices are fresh.
Lebkuchen origin
Lebkuchen are of German provenance, invented by Franciscan monks (like so many good things – beer, pretzels, Chartreuse and Bénédictine) in the 13th century.
But the origins of those biscuits go even further back, to the ancient times when they were called ‘honey cakes’ and believed to bring good luck and have healing properties.
It means that apart from the fun and ease of making them, plus of course the pleasure of eating, they provide us with luck and healing – what else would we want? They can even be made into Christmas tree decorations. I’ll store mine in a biscuit tin and sneak one or three every day.
The dough recipe is adapted from BBC Good Food; I boost the spices and add the icing.
How to make the lebkuchen dough
This is the easiest possible recipe. All the spices are mixed in with the flour, ground almonds and the raising agents, and the butter is warmed up with honey until it melts. This warm liquid should be poured into the dry ingredients and mixed into a sticky, tacky dough.
Chilling in the fridge, at least an hour and up to several days, will get rid of the tackiness, make it set and become pliable, rollable and cuttable.
Lebkuchen shapes
They can be just shaped into slightly flattened balls, grown up style, but it’s great fun to cut festive shapes, ice and decorate them. It will be a hit with kids – although truth be told, I know some adults who get an excited glint in their eyes at the mention of cutting festive shapes, sprinkles and dipping their fingers in the icing.
To make the boring, flattened balls, simply scoop chunks of dough, as small or big as you like, roll them into a ball and sit it on a baking tray, pressing down to flatten.
You can decorate them with blanched almonds like the classic Nuremberg lebkuchen.
To cut shapes, roll the dough out on a surface lightly dusted with flour to a thickness of about 3⁄4 cm (1⁄3 inch). Cut the shapes and place on baking trays lined with parchment, well-spaced apart.
Baking and icing
They will bake in ten to twelve minutes depending on size and should be still soft and not coloured when out of the oven – they’ll set as they cool.
And even if you bake the boring round shapes, they absolutely must be iced!
The icing in this recipe is delicious, and you can brush the lebkuchen with it using a pastry brush. Place them on parchment and leave to set, but any decorative sprinkles must be added while the icing is still wet.
More Christmas biscuit recipes
Zimtsterne are German cinnamon and almond star-shaped cookies baked and gifted during Advent and Christmas. Tiny, dainty and naturally gluten-free, they are like an edible sweet snowflake!
Ricciarelli, almond shaped and almond flavoured biscuits from Siena, traditionally made and gifted for Christmas. An authentic recipe for these delightful marzipan sweets.
Dutch gingerbread biscuits, speculaasbrokken, thick and chunky. They are the easiest Christmas cookies, baked in a large slab decorated with almonds.
More German baking recipes
Homemade German pretzels, or Laugenbretzeln sprinkled with salt crystals, soft and chewy inside and brown glossy outside thanks to a dip in lye or a baking soda solution before baking.
Black forest gâteau, rich and dark chocolate base layered with pillows of cream swathing fresh, lightly roasted cherries. A luxurious idea for the next birthday or celebration bake.
Apple kuchen, the German classic, with yeast dough base and roasted apples. The kuchen is more traditional with yeast dough, and the nuts and breadcrumbs give the topping a lovely texture. It’s utterly delicious with some cream or custard.