Lebkuchen is a traditional sweet biscuit that comes from Nurembery, Germany since the late 1300s. This soft, cakey biscuit is spicy, easy-to-make and marks the beginning of Christmas in Germany. It is a delicious biscuit that tastes almost like gingerbread even though there is no ginger in it! These cookies are round, have a sweet, lightly nutty taste and they give off a spicy aroma like nutmeg and allspice.
You can enjoy these with a warm cup of tea or coffee, and they store really well so they are perfect to make ahead of time if you would like to get a kick start on your Christmas baking! Just keep them in a tin can or sealed container to maintain freshness and eat up whenever you like!
*If you would like to share my recipe and photos please provide proper credit and a link back to this original post. Thanks!
German Lebkuchen Christmas Biscuits
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1 cup light molasses
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp cloves
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 200g candied orange, lemon and citron peel, diced and mixed
- 100g slivered almonds
- 3 1/2 cups white flour
- lemon juice for icing
- powdered sugar for icing
- * optional: dark chocolate for icing
- In a saucepan over medium heat, warm brown sugar, honey molasses and butter. Mix together and set aside to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, mix sour cream and baking soda and then add the cooled sugar, honey, molasses and butter mix.
- Mix in ground cinnamon, cloves, cocoa powder, candied citrus peels, slivered almonds, and white flour. Keep mixing with your hands until you form a nice dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow it to rest overnight in the fridge.
- The next day, preheat over to 350 F and roll out dough 1/4″ thick onto a lightly floured surface. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles and place onto lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. In a small bow, mix together half lemon juice and half water with some icing sugar and mix until a pourable icing has formed. Dip the top of each cookie into the icing and set aside.
- If you like, you can also dip the bottom part of the cookie in chocolate syrup. To do this, add half a bar of dark cooking chocolate in a small pot (about 100g of chocolate). Add a tbsp of oil and stir until all chocolate has melted. Dip the bottom parts into the melted chocolate and place on parchment paper and into freezer until cooled and chocolate has hardened.
Do you leave the cloves whole?
No they need to be ground cloves.
What size cookie cutter do you use?