Christmas Baking – Traditional German Lebkuchen made EASY

Lebkuchen!

Front of unglazed Lebkuchen

A traditional German baked Christmas treat, somewhat resembling gingerbread. Lebkuchen were invented by Medieval monks in Franconia, Germany in the 13th century.

If you have ever tried to make Lebkuchen, you probably think I must be out of my mind to try this at home. This has to be the messiest cookies one can make. Check out my made-EASY step-by-step instruction and amaze your family and friends with these tasty home-made treats!

Ingredients:

• 6 cups flour
• 1 box light brown sugar (1 pound)
• 4-5 Tablespoons Lebkuchen spice (see below)
  —mix all dry ingredients together
• 6 eggs
• 1 glass honey (pint/8 ounces)
  —mix moist ingredients together

Combine and knead into a smooth dough, let rest (covered) at room temperature overnight.
Form into shapes and bake at 325F for 10 minutes until light brown.  Glaze as desired. Makes approximately 50 cookies.

Lebkuchen spice:
Mix equal portions (I use only a hint of nutmeg and twice as much cinnamon) of ground: Cinnamon, Anis, Gloves, Nutmeg, Coriander, Cardamon, Staranis (if available)

Lebkuchen Dough

If you try to roll this sticky dough out, you’ll either have to add so much flour that it will ruin the flavor or you’ll end up with an incredible mess and nothing resembling the shape you cut.  You’ll swear to never do this again.

Here’s my made-easy method:

Get a bowl of water and drop you cookie cutters in.  line your cookie sheets with wax paper or aluminum foil.  I use 3 cookie sheets in rotation (deposit dough, oven, cooling).  barely moisten the palm of your hand with water, place a lump of dough on it and flatten a bit, cut out shape and place on cookie sheet. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfect or still have imprints of your fingers or hand.
The cookies will expand to 3-4 inches, leave plenty of room between them!

Using cookie cutter in my hand

Cookie cutter in bowl of water

Raw cookie on wax paper

Fresh from the oven

The most difficult part is letting the cookies cool nearly completely before removing the foil or paper. To remove foil, flip over and gently peel off.  To remove wax paper, wet the paper with water and peel off.  If your cookies are too warm, the foil or paper will not come off easily.  Just wait a little longer and try again.

Peeling off foil

Moist wax paper ready to peel off

Back of cookies

This recipe makes about 50 cookies.  Decorate with sugar and/or chocolate glaze.  Some people like sprinkles and others insert almonds before cooking.  They are soft inside and will keep for weeks when stored in an airtight container.  May also be frozen.  Enjoy!

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