These traditional German Christmas cookies are a deliciously intense combination of German gingerbread spice (Lebkuchengewürz) and candied citrus. Lebkuchen originally translated to "life cake" and I am all about that! They're soft, dense, chewy and sweet, and taste even better after a few days! And if you are gluten free these are perfect because they're naturally flourless!
The original recipe, which I modified, is from: http://mygerman.recipes/german-gingerbread-cookies-elisen/
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:
Ingredients:
150 g hazelnuts
150 g almonds
3 eggs
100 g brown sugar
3 Tbsp. honey.
90 g candied orange peel
90 g candied lemon peel
4 tsp. German gingerbread spice mix (Lebkuchengewürz)
Pinch of salt
7 cm diameter backoblaten (optional)
Topping: powdered sugar, blanched almonds (optional), or melted chocolate (optional)
Directions:
Finely grind the almonds and hazelnuts in a food processor. Set aside.
Grind the candied orange and lemon peel (or chop) until fine.
In a large bowl beat the 3 eggs, the brown sugar, and the honey together until the sugar is dissolved, about 3-7 minutes.
Add the ground nuts, peel, spice mix, and a pinch of salt. Mix until well combined.
Cover and set in the fridge for 10 to 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 320°F.
Note: if you have 7 cm edible backoblaten use this for step 8, but It's not common outside of Europe, so for step 8 you can also spread your cookies on 7 cm circles cut out of parchment paper (remove them before eating!) or simply spread the cookies on parchment paper before baking.
Turn a glass or mug over that's the size as the paper/backoblaten and place the paper/backoblaten on top. Now put some of the batter and spread it out and smooth it until it's slightly domed. Then place on a parchment lined baking tray.
Optional: Refrigerate the cookies for 10 minutes before baking.
Bake at 320°F for about 18-20 minutes. They will lighten in color and turn a little golden on the bottom and edges.
Let the cookies cool at least 1 hour before glazing them. To glaze, mix together the powdered sugar with a little bit of water, then dip the cookies on and scrape off excess. Top with blanched almonds (if desired) before the glaze dries. You can also use melted chocolate but I tried it and personally I don't like it.
Servings: 20 cookies. They can be kept at room temperature up to 7 days, and tend to taste better with age!
Here I show how I made a half batch:
Before grinding the hazelnuts and almonds together.
After grinding the nuts. Set them aside.
Before grinding the candied peel.
After grinding the candied peel (you can also hand chop it).
Before mixing the brown sugar, honey, and eggs together until completely dissolved.
After the sugar is dissolved in the eggs.
Then add the ground nuts, peel, spice, and salt.
And mix it in.
Cover and chill overnight or for 24 hours.
The next day mine looked like this. Very thick and sticky.
I cut out 7 cm parchment paper circles to shape my cookies on. If you have edible backoblaten you can use this instead.
Place a paper down.
Then shape the dough onto the paper in a slightly domed shape.
Side view.
Then place on parchment paper. Before baking.
After baking.
Once cooled you can start decorating them!
After decorating leave them to dry before storing.
If you used parchment paper like me, remember to peel it off before eating!
So golden on the bottom!
Plain glazed ones. Intensely delicious!
Chocolate glazed ones. Not as good as the regular glazed ones in my opinion :)