Lebkuchen I Recipes

Steps:

• Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Pulse almonds and hazelnuts in a food processor until very finely chopped. Add candied peels and dates, and pulse until finely chopped. Add almond paste, and pulse to combine. Add jam, and pulse. Add eggs and brown sugar, and pulse. Add flour mixture, and pulse. Transfer dough to an airtight container, and refrigerate overnight (or up to 3 days).
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using a 2-inch ice cream scoop (1/4 cup), drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing cookies 3 inches apart. Place 3 almonds close together on top of each cookie. Bake until golden brown, about 14 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
• Whisk together confectioners' sugar and milk, and brush over cooled cookies. Let stand until set.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 15x10x1-in. baking pan with parchment., In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses, buttermilk and extract. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, allspice, cardamom and cloves; gradually add to creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in walnuts., Place raisins, dates, lemon peel, coconut, orange peel and pineapple in a food processor; pulse until chopped. Stir into batter; press into prepared pan. Bake 25-28 minutes or until lightly browned., For glaze, in a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil; boil 1 minute. Remove from heat; whisk in confectioners' sugar. Spread over warm bars. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat the egg, brown sugar and honey until smooth. Stir in the molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and allspice; stir into the molasses mixture. Stir in the almonds and candied fruit peel. Cover or wrap dough, and chill overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut into 2x3 inch rectangles. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. While still warm, brush the cookies with the lemon glaze.
• To make the glaze: In a small bowl, stir together the egg white, lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth. Brush over cookies.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange backoblaten (German baking wafers) on top, leaving a 1-inch space between them.
• Combine almond flour, sugar, eggs, ground hazelnuts, candied lemon and orange peel, ground cinnamon, vanilla sugar, and ground cloves and mix into a firm dough.
• Shape mixture into balls. Arrange balls on the prepared wafers; press gently to flatten into 1/2-inch-high rounds.
• Bake in the preheated oven until light brown in color, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• Place chocolate in top of a double boiler over simmering water. Stir frequently, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula to avoid scorching, until chocolate is melted, about 5 minutes. Cover the top of each lebkuchen with chocolate.

Steps:

• Tip the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Heat the honey and butter in a pan over a low heat until the butter melts, then pour into the flour mixture along with the lemon zest. Mix well until the dough is combined and fairly solid. Cover and leave to cool.
• Heat oven to 180C/fan160C/gas 4. Using your hands, roll dough into about 30 balls, each 3cm wide, then flatten each one slightly into a disk. Divide the biscuits between two baking trays lined with baking parchment, leaving room for them to expand. Bake for 15 mins, then cool on a wire rack.
• To ice the biscuits, mix together the icing sugar, egg white and 1-2 tbsp water to form a smooth, runny icing. Dip the top of each biscuit in the icing and spread with the back of a knife. Leave to dry out in a warm room.

Steps:

• Make nut flour:
• Finely grind nuts with remaining nut flour ingredients in a food processor.
• Make dough:
• Beat together brown sugar, honey, and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until creamy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in nut flour at low speed until just blended, then stir in candied fruit.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Arrange rice-paper rounds, shiny sides down, on 2 large baking sheets. Roll level 2-tablespoon amounts of dough into balls with dampened hands, then put 1 on each paper round and flatten slightly (dough will spread to cover paper during baking).
• Bake cookies in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until surface no longer appears wet, about 15 minutes total. Transfer to racks to cool.
• Ice cookies:
• Sift confectioners sugar into a bowl, then stir in water until smooth. Evenly brush tops of cooled cookies with icing. Let icing set, about 1 hour.
• Available at Fauchon (212-308-5919) or The Baker's Catalogue (800-827-6836).

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, stir together the honey and molasses. Bring the mixture to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the brown sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lastly the egg.
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Add the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the citron and hazelnuts. Cover dough and chill overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Using a small amount of dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into small rectangles and place them 1 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until no imprint remains when touched lightly.
• Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (soft ball stage). Remove from heat and stir in the confectioners' sugar.
• Quickly brush the icing over the cookies while they are still hot (Important!) and remove them to wire cooling racks. If icing becomes sugary while brushing cookies, re-heat slightly- adding a little water until crystals dissolve.
• Store in an airtight container with a cup of orange or apple for a few days to mellow. (I never did understand that part of the instructions, and my friend had no clarification - but I take it to mean store with a cut-up apple or orange - maybe a small cup of juice? I don't know - I just stored the cookies in an airtight container by themselves!).

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two baking sheets (cookie sheet) or line them with parchment paper.
• 2. Sift together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Set aside.
• 3. Beat the egg and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
• 4. Beat in the honey and molasses until thoroughly combined. On low speed, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
• 5. Turn the dough out from the bowl onto a well-floured surface. Knead the dough, adding more flour as kneaded, until a stiff dough is formed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.
• 6. On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough into a 9×12-inch rectangle. Cut the dough into 18 3×2-inch rectangles, place a rice wafer under each (OPT) . Bake for 10-12 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool.
• 7. Whisk together the confectioner's sugar, water and lemon juice and brush or spread on top of the cookies. Allow the glaze to firm, and then store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.