It’s holiday baking season, y’all! I’m sharing with you one of my favorites, which we made in my Family European Baking Class at Cibo & Vino last week. This is a traditional German Lebkuchen Holiday Cookies featuring complex flavors. It is absolutely the ultimate make-ahead cookie! Make two batches the first week of December, before your schedule ramps up, hide them in your pantry, and pull them back out as needed before Dec 25. They’ve got your back!
This recipe leans heavily on the recipe by Lucy Parissi at Supergolden Bakes. I’ve modified a few things with the prep and the ingredients.
European Baking Primer
Like most European recipes, it uses weight instead of measuring cups. If you own a kitchen scale, I highly recommend using weight. This is more precise (no more sifting flour before measuring or packing down brown sugar). Even better, there are no measuring cups to clean! Just put your mixing bowl on the scale, press the “zero” or “tare” button, and then add the correct amount of honey (or whatever). Once you weigh the honey, press the zero/tare button again so the scale reads zero, and then add the weight you need of brown sugar. Anybody who has ever measured honey in a glass measuring cup will really appreciate using the scale!!!
Prep Work for German Lebkuchen Holiday Cookies
ZEST: When you zest a lemon or an orange, you just want to get the color off of the peel. You do not want to get the bitter white pith. An inexpensive microplane can do this for you easily and then you let the dishwasher clean it!
Important Note
These cookies are only so-so on the day you bake them! Give the cookies time (at least a day). Also, store them in an air-tight container with a slice of apple or a scrap of orange peel.
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German Lebkuchen Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients
- 170 g honey about 1/2 cup
- 200 g brown sugar, soft about 1 cup
- 60 g unsalted butter, cubed 1/4 cup
- 1 egg large, lightly beaten
- 1 t lemon zest
- 1 t orange zest
- 1 T lemon juice only if dough is dry!
- 300 g all-purpose flour about 1-3/4 cups
- 100 g almond flour
- 1 t baking powder
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 2 t ground cinnamon (I like Vietnamese)
- 1/2 t fine sea salt
- 1/2 t ground allspice
- 1/4 t ground ginger
- 1/4 t ground cloves
- 1/4 t ground nutmeg
- 1/8 t white pepper (optional)
Glaze Ingredients:
- 120 g powdered sugar about 1 cup
- 1 t lemon juice
- 1 t clear vanilla so the icing stays pure white
- 1 t rum (optional but highly recommended) I used Captain Morgan's spiced rum
- milk Up to 3T, as needed for consistency
Optional: sprinkles, colored sugar, and/or sparkling sugar
Instructions
Preparing the dough
- Measure the honey and sugar in a mixing bowl and heat in the microwave for 30-second bursts, stirring until the sugar is dissolved
- Add cubed butter and zest, stirring until butter melts
- Stir in baking powder, soda, salt, spices, and egg
- Add both flours. Mix until you have a soft and slightly sticky dough, adding a little lemon juice if needed.
- Mist hands with oil and gather the dough into a ball. Cover the mixing bowl with a towel and leave to rest for at least an hour or even overnight at room temperature.
Preparing the glaze
- Mix all glaze ingredients in a bowl until you have a thin and runny glaze
Rolling and baking the dough
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Take about a third of the dough and roll it between two pieces of waxed paper to a thickness of about an inch. If difficult to roll, place in fridge 30 minutes to chill.
- Cut shapes using cookie cutters (no complex shapes!). Bake for 12-minutes on parchment paper. Repeat with remaining dough, gathering any scraps and re-incorporating them.
- While the cookies are still warm (but not hot!), brush with the glaze
- Allow the glaze to dry and then add a second layer (if desired). Before the glaze dries, add any decorations you like (sparkling sugar, colored sugar, sprinkles, chopped nuts, etc.)
- Place the cookies in a sealed container, separated by wax paper so they don’t stick. Store with a few orange peels or an apple slice, replacing them as needed. Lebkuchen get better with age!
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