Sprechen sie Deutsch? No, I do not speak German. Even though my dad's name is Wilhelm and my grandparents came from Baden Baden. I like to think that they brought this recipe with them. I have no idea where our family picked up the Lebkuchen recipe along the way but this is the cookie that we make only at Christmas and for sure every single year. I'm not going to lie...they take some work and perhaps when you see the ingredients include candied fruit you will wonder if you should make Lebkuchen. Do not fear the candied fruit. They add to the texture of the Lebkuchen cookie which in no way tastes like fruit cake.
The ingredients include; honey, candied fruit, almonds and molasses as well as the regulars of sugar, eggs, flour, etc. Then when you bring in the spices of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice it takes these cookies to another level of goodness.
To get started use your food processor or blender and combine the almonds and candied fruit. Pulse until it is looking just like this...then set aside.
Add the honey and egg to the bowl using your stand mixer. Mix on low until combined.
Add in the brown sugar and molasses. Again, mix until combined. This picture isn't my best work in food photography but your wet mixture is now complete.
Once the wet mixture is combined add in the flour, spices and baking soda.
Once the dry ingredients are added to the wet ingredients turn your mixture on low. This is a sticky dough and you don't want to overwork it.
Remember when you used the food processor and mixed the candied fruit and almonds? Well the time has come to add them to the cookie mixture. Dump it in and turn your mixer to low and once they are all mixed in you are set to go. Actually, you are set to walk to the refrigerator to chill your Lebkuchen dough for at least 6 hours, if not longer.
Once the dough has chilled and you are ready to bake the Lebkuchen you will want to find a large bread board, or we used my Pampered Chef Pastry Mat to roll the lebkuchen on. Dust the surface with flour and dust your rolling pin with flour. Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. It is sticky so keep that flour nearby to keep dusting your rolling pin and board as needed.
We cut the Lebkuchen into diamonds, although if you ever asked your parents why you needed to take geometry this is why...parallelograms. Use a small spatula. Again, I love my Pampered Chef utensils and use the small one that everyone has to transfer to the baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.
They aren't perfect in size or shape but that's how they have looked in our family for a long time. My mom made these when we were young and I can't remember a Christmas that I haven't had these for over 50 years. So I am going with tradition and making them the same shape she did.
Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. When you remove the Lebkuchen from the oven cool for 3 minutes then make sure to remove to a cooling rack or they will stick to the parchment paper. Can you smell the spices? I can!
Once cooled you can frost or you can store the cookies in an airtight container and frost them when you are ready to use the Lebkuchen. Our family tradition is to frost cookies on Christmas Eve morning. So I store the cookies in the container in the freezer and take out the Lebkuchen for Christmas Eve morning for our frosting festivities.
Lebkuchen Recipe
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Oven temp: 350
Bake Time: 10-12 minutes
Ingredients
1 egg
½ cup honey
¾ cup brown sugar
½ molasses
½ slivered almonds
½ heaping cup mixed candied fruit
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ allspice
½ cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
Directions
Combine the almonds and candied fruit in your food processor or blender. Pulse until combined.
Combine the honey and egg to a bowl in your stand mixer. Mix on low for 30 seconds.
Add in the brown sugar and molasses. Mix on low until everything is well combined.
Mix together the soda, flour, allspice, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg in another bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly. Mix until just combined.
Setting your mixer to slow add in the candied fruit and almond mixture.
Chill dough for 6 or more hours.
Flour the surface of a bread board or pastry mat.
Roll dough ¼ inch thick. Cut in diamonds or squares. See above picture.
Bake at 350° for 12 minutes.
Cool for 3 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack.
When cool frost the Lebkuchen or freeze and frost when ready to serve.
Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
½ cup butter melted
¼ cup heavy cream
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Directions
1. Melt butter in the microwave.
2. In a large bowl coming the butter and cream.
3. Add in powder sugar
4. Flavor with the lemon.
Enjoy!
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