Ciaran’s Omnipurpose Blog

Christmas is coming! So the important thing to remember at this time of year is FOOD!

I love Lebkuchen. It’s a bit like gingerbread, only spicier and fruitier. Well, the variety I like the most is. It’s called Nürnberger Lebkuchen. There are lots of varieties, but I think this one is the best.

It really takes me back to my roots: my mum used to bake huge batches of this at Christmas. This Christmas, I’m going to do it. I’m probably going to start tonight. It’s a very laborious process, but the cookies last for ages and they’re delicious.

So here’s the recipe. You’ve still got time before Christmas to get the ingredients and bake them whilst snowed in:

This recipe is for a small batch. We usually multiply the ingredients up 3 or 4 times to get a good quantity for keeping in airtight tins. They’re full of honey, so they keep well.

Ingredients

• 175g Clear Honey
• 50g Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 heaped Teaspoon cocoa
• 6 drops lemon essence
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1 level Teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 250g Wheat Flour
• 3 level Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 75g ground almonds
• 75g ground hazelnuts
• 50g candied lemon peel
• 75g dried apricot (diced)
• Whole hazelnuts and almonds (optional – for decoration)

For the icing:

• 125g Icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• Water

Method

• Mix the honey, sugar, oil and water in a bowl, gently warming over a pan if necessary. Allow to cool slightly.
• Into the mixture, fold in the egg yolk, cocoa, lemon essence, ground cloves and cinnamon. Don’t forget to reserve the egg whites!
• Sieve into the mixture the flour, bakikng powder and some water if necessary to make a good dough.
• Into the dough,mix in the ground almonds, hazelnuts, peel and apricots.
• Roll out the dough to a thickness of about half a centimeter.
• Cut out cookie shapes and (optionally) decorate the cookies.
• Bake the cookes at 175-200 degrees in a warm oven for 15-20 mins.
• Whilst the cookies are baking, mix the egg whites with the icing sugar and water until the icing is ready.
• Then paint the icing sugar over the cookies with a pastry brush.

I’m going to make these tonight. If I’m not too busy stuffing my face, I’ll put pictures up of the final product.

Enjoy! Let me know if you like the recipe!