Lebkuchen Recipe

Lebkuchen Recipe, delicious German Christmas cookies that are very similar taste-wise to gingerbread. Beautifully spiced, with a lovely thin icing on top, these lebkuchen cookies are very popular in Europe during the festive season. 

More Christmas baking, and probably a few more treat recipes coming soon on the blog, before the most awaited day of the year. As much as I say I'll start focusing on food recipes, baking never seems more fulfilling and therapeutic than at Christmas time.

These lebkuchen cookies might sound like a weird treat, but the taste is well known, and loved too during the festive season. They are also the treat of my childhood, as they are what we call gingerbread. We might bake the classic gingerbread men now too, but they weren't as known when I was little.

There are probably many variations out there, and more complicated and beautifully decorated cookies, but sometimes less is more. The thin layer of icing is what brings out the earthy spices used in the cookies, and everything makes one delicious treat.

And we don't even need loads of ingredients, just a few simple ones that we probably already have around. If you bake with kids, they will absolutely love getting their hands messy. Let's see how to make them!

Jump to:

• Ingredients needed
• Step-by-step photos and instructions
• How to decorate lebkutchen cookies
• Lebkuchen Recipe

Ingredients needed

• plain flour
• butter - unsalted
• sugar - granulated or caster sugar
• honey
• eggs - at room temperature
• mixed spices -cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
• cinnamon
• bicarb of soda
• lemon juice
• icing sugar - well sifted to avoid lumps
• boiling water

Step-by-step photos and instructions

As promised, this recipe is an easy peasy one. Some recipes call for the dough to be left to rest for hours and hours, which I chose to ignore. I chilled it for 30 minutes, and that was more than enough. If we can make our lives easier and sweeter, why bother with such time-consuming recipes?!

• melt the butter, and leave it to cool slightly
• in a bowl, sift the flour, add the mixed spices and cinnamon and bicarb of soda
• add the eggs beaten lightly, melted butter, honey and lemon juice
• mix well to get a dough that does not stick to the hands - add more flour if necessary
• chill the dough for 30 minutes
• preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit)
• form balls the size of a walnut, and arrange them on the baking tray lined with non-stick paper - do leave enough room between the cookies as they spread
• bake for 10 minutes until firm and light brown

How to decorate lebkutchen cookies

Once the cookies have cooled down, you can make the icing. I usually keep it simple, but you can add any flavouring of your choice: vanilla, lemon, orange extract, etc

Mix the sifted icing sugar with the milk to get a smooth liquid paste - if it's a bit lumpy, pass it through a sieve or blitz it in a blender for a few seconds. Drizzle it over the cookies, and leave the icing to harden. Then they are ready to serve.

You can, of course, decorate them with different colour - just add any food colouring to your sugar paste - I highly recommend paste food colouring, as the liquid ones are not as strong, and they also alter the consistency of the icing.

Forget about store-bought lebkuchen, these cookies are the very best you can get. Once you have them, you will never go back to the ready-made ones. Do give them a try!

If you’ve tried my LEBKUCHEN RECIPE or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.