Lebkuchen, German Christmas Cookies

If your thinking aw no, no... not ANOTHER cookie recipe I whole heartedly understand, and I apologize. I'm sure my post will be just another pebble in the ocean of cookie recipes for some, maybe I'll luck out and you will love it though? This is one of the sacred cookies on my table. Everyone has "the roster" of what cookies and desserts they crank out every year. Sometimes I try and switch it up or experiment but theres often a usual list of what to expect. For me its usually at least two molasses enriched doughs like gingersnaps and gingerbread, theres always something chocolate and most years I do a divine chocolate and peanut butter biscotti, maybe something swirly and cute, oh and sugar cookies. This year however we're on a budget, well we were on a budget but then I blew through it.  

This year I'm sticking to it and really only doing a limited cookie plate. Santa I'm sure will notice his diet rich in cookies will be a bit of a lighter load this year. (Sorry Santa!) I'll make a few of our usuals but one thing I've tackled in the past is lebkuchen. Lebkuchen is a traditional German Christmas cookie, I believe the translation is "Love Cake". Its said they were originally invented by monks, some even thought that these cookies were magical, and often worn as good luck charms to ward off evil spirits. Traditional Christmas Cookies that are sold in the open air Christmas markets in Germany are more what I'd consider Gingerbread, they are rich with a good deal spices and molasses, and cut into shapes. Sounds like a familiar Christmas cookie we all know and love well right? (Pfefferkuchen most often translates as gingerbread.) 

Just as often as I see gingerbread referenced for the term "lebkuchen" I've seen a lot of recipes for honey bars or honey cakes. (cookies) This variety of recipes is a dough that doesn't have quite as much spice, it uses honey and they are typically a softer cookie. Who knows what the real explanation is, I figure Lebkuchen is just a round up expression that denotes quite simply Christmas cookies. If you've followed my mead posts you'll know that honey often does refer to love and romance. (honeymoon, honey lips etc.) For many years honey was considered a gift from the gods, and it was the only sweetener available for some time so it was used pretty much exclusively used in medieval baking. It seems pretty ideal for me to assume the "love cookie" is a honey variety of the holiday biscuit. Either way I think its safe to assume honey cookies/cake and gingerbread are quite possibly Germany's  official Christmas cookies...oh and the little pepper nuts (Pfeffernüsse, black pepper, spice and nut balls)

This is my recipe variation of Lebkuchen. In my house gingerbread is gingerbread and I've usually got a wide spread of molasses rich cookies because I LOVE spicy molasses cookies. For my version I wanted something distinctly different, and not rich with molasses like everything else on my cookie plate. I've made a few variations of this recipe, its taken a bit of tweaking and a few years of uh-oh's. The traditional recipes I found for the German Honey biscuits usually involves that nuclear colored candied fruit product or candied citrus peel...if you cant tell I hate that stuff. I wanted to stick with using only honey and I went from there. So I used ground almonds, apricot preserves, honey and spices as my main flavor components. You could easily substitute orange marmalade for a nod to the traditional addition of candied orange peel, or you can omit the jam all together I'm sure it wont make much difference. The final difference of my recipe is that I dried mine out so that they're harder, you don't have to do this. If you want them soft and chewy its fine, however I find that drying them out seems to make them invincible. You can ship them to the moon and they'll survive, you can leave them in the cupboard for six months, come back for one and it will taste awesome. I seriously think these cookies could survive the apocalypse. I really never grow tired of dipping these types of cookies in Christmas wine, eggnog, milk or even coffee. To glaze them I made a basic yet absolutely delicious lemon glaze. It plays off with the spice perfectly, it really enhances the flavors, and its absolutely Christmas in one bite. 

Lebkuchen:

My recipe is for an almond and honey cookie with fruit jam to help flavor it. You can substitute orange marmalade for a more traditional orange flavor thats usually found in fruit cakes and fruity cookies. You can also use molasses as well as honey, one or the other if you'd like. You can vary the spices to your own tastes, I prefer cardamom, clove, cinnamon and ginger. Play with it and make your own traditions, your own memories. 

Wet Ingredients:

2/3 cup honey

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter (melted)

2 eggs

3 tablespoons apricot jam

Dry Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups all purpose unbleached flour

1/2 cup ground almonds (coarse ground)

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon allspice

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Lemon Glaze: 

(simply stir to combine, remove any lumps)

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl combine the wet ingredients. I usually melt the butter in a bowl and then put the honey in. Since my home is fairly cold if necessary I gently warm the honey in a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. The warm butter helps smooth out the honey. As long as your mixture is still lukewarm you can combine the remaining wet ingredients and stir to combine. Combine dry ingredients, not including 1 cup of the flour. (You will mix this in last) Stir everything together until smooth in consistency. Once your  mixture is smooth stir in the remaining one cup of flour. It will be somewhat stiff., stiffer if you did not use preserves. 

Using a cookie dough disher scoop even mounds of cookie dough onto a lined baking sheet, about an inch or so apart. They do not really spread that much. Bake 8-10 minutes and remove from the oven. Do this with all of the cookies until no dough remains. Allow them to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack. You can ice them once they are fully cooled  or you can dry them out. 

To glaze them I simply mixed up the glaze and dipped the rounded side of each cookie into the glaze. Swirl it slightly to let excess glaze drip off and flip right side up onto the drying rack. Allow to dry fully before packaging. 

To Dehydrate/dry: I dried mine out by setting my oven to 100 degrees. Place the cookies on cooling racks in an even layer and put in the oven overnight or about 8 hours. 

*For the traditional recipe, you can add up to 1/4 cup of dried fruit. Its about 2 tablespoons of candied citrus and 2 tablespoons of the mixed candied fruit and they are not normally dried out, they are left chewy.