Why It Works
- Cocoa powder adds a dark depth of flavor.
- Baking on parchment insulates the cookies or bars from the baking sheet, preventing them from becoming rubbery and over-browned.
- The dough can be baked right away on a baking sheet and then cut into bars, or chilled for at least 4 hours, then scooped into individual cookies and baked.
Over the years, I must've eaten thousands and thousands of Christmas cookies.Lebkuchenwere never among them. In fact, until I started hiring German au pairs to help with my kids, I'd never even heard of them. Every year at Christmas, the girls, from Munich, Dresden, Cologne, Frankfurt, Saarbrücken, and Hamburg, would receive care packages from home. Inside were Advent calendars (apparently it's a big thing in Germany), loads and loads of chocolate, and boxes of lebkuchen. Unlike the familiar hard gingerbread, lebkuchen are soft, cakey gingerbread cookies filled with nuts, dried fruit, and honey. They date back to 13th-century monastic Nuremberg, where production is still strong today, and are probably Germany's most famous cookies. So pretty, decorated with a crackling chocolate or sugary glaze, whole almonds, and glacéed cherries, they promised so much but inevitably failed to deliver.
I never much cared for them, preferring the crunchy gingerbread or snappygingersnapsof my childhood. So tackling a recipe that was clearly not in my wheelhouse was going to be a challenge. I'd have to forget everything I knew about gingerbread cookies (except maybe the spices) and start almost from scratch.
Dialing in the Texture and Flavor
I knew that I wanted a chewy and cakey texture. The first step was using honey and dark brown sugar to sweeten the dough, since those ingredients are humectants, meaning they help retain moisture; regular white sugar tends to harden when it caramelizes, making the lebkuchen way too snappy and crispy. Plus, honey and brown sugar add plenty of their own rich flavor, perfect for spiced Christmas cookies.
I also knew to use more baking powder than baking soda. Baking soda, as you can readin this primer, is ideal for creating a crispy texture—baking soda–heavy cookies tend to rise and then deflate. Powder, on the other hand, will make a puffier cookie that rises and stays risen, leading to more cakey texture.
And I knew I'd have to use more eggs and flour than intuition would tell me, and not as much butter—more flour in relation to the fat means more gluten development (fat interferes with the formation of gluten), which in turn leads to a more doughy result. For flavor, I'd have to use lots of candied fruit (though I draw the line at citron, sorry) and possibly some cocoa (thinking pumpernickel).
All these directions were pointing me toward something I was destined to hate. Until, that is, I tasted the first cookie. The flavors were actually kind of intoxicating—spicy, fruity, nutty, with barely a hint of cocoa, and the texture was not at all unpleasant. In fact, it was pretty good.
So the texture was almost there, the color was nice, and the flavor was good, though it could've used a bit more spice. Then I tasted it the next day and was amazed at the difference. Everything had had a chance to come together. In fact, the texture was better the second day. The cookie had softened a bit and was nicely moist and chewy under the thin crackle of glaze. Not quite perfect, though, since I still wanted more spice and a slightly darker, richer color. For the next test, I upped the spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cardamom—sometimes sold as "lebkuchen spices" in Germany) and switched from Valrhona unsweetened cocoa to Hershey's Extra Dark Cocoa. At first I'd assumed that the fancier cocoa would be the way to go, but it added too much bitterness; the mellow richness of the Hershey's Extra Dark, the everyman of cocoas, was just right.
These had that just-spicy-enough intensity, a lovely deep mahogany color, and that awesome chewy, cakey texture. I was truly surprised by how much I liked them. I was more surprised by how much my son liked them, he of the Toll-House-is-the-only-cookie ilk.
Shaping and Baking the Cookies
Most of my au pairs would receive store-bought round lebkuchen in their care packages, but occasionally one of their mothers would send homemade bars, which are less time-consuming to make than rounds but no less delicious. I wanted a dough that could be baked both ways, as either rounds or bars. I ended up with a dough that's soft and sticky enough to require significant chilling before forming into rounds, but can be used right away if making bars.
A nice option is to bake half of the dough into bars (a quarter sheet pan is perfect) and the other half into rounds. An important thing to note for bars is that the dried fruit needs to be very finely chopped to make cutting the cookies easier. Dried fruit can be very sticky, though, which makes mincing difficult.
My solution is to chop the dried fruit and crystallized ginger with some of the dry ingredients, either on the cutting board or in a food processor, then pulse them in the food processor with the remaining dry ingredients after that. It's an extra step, but it makes a big difference, since the flour coats the cut surfaces, reducing their stickiness. When rolling into balls, I like to use a 1.75-inch ice cream scoop, moistened with water between scoops. Keep a glass of warm water and a clean towel next to the bowl, then roll the balls with lightly moistened hands. (Be sure to shake out any excess water from the scoop to avoid introducing too much moisture into the dough.)
Traditionally, lebkuchen are baked on little rice paper rounds calledoblaten—like communion wafers—to keep them from sticking to the pan. You can buy them online or at specialty stores, but lining the pan with parchment works just as well. Avoid the temptation to butter and flour your cookie sheet, and don't use a nonstick pan or cooking spray in place of parchment. The paper acts as insulation from the heat radiating up through the baking sheet—omit it, and the cookies will brown too quickly on the bottom and develop an odd rubbery texture.
When making the glaze, I wanted a pure white version, so I used confectioners' sugar, water, and kirsch, but you can use Grand Marnier or rum or vanilla extract instead. The glaze is best when applied to just barely cooled cookies and allowed to dry until set. And, as I mentioned earlier, these really do get better with a little age, so try to resist the urge to eat them right away. Perhaps you've never had them before, either, but I'm confident they could become your favorite holiday cookies, too.
December 2015
Recipe Details
Moist and Chewy Lebkuchen (German Spiced Christmas Cookies) Recipe
Active60 mins
Total60 mins
Serves48 cookies
Ingredients
For the Dough:
1/2 cup hazelnuts (2 ounces; 57g)
1/2 cup almond meal (2 ounces; 57g)
2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour (12 ounces; 320g)
2 tablespoons (14.8g) unsweetened cocoa (preferably dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2.5g) baking soda
2 teaspoons (4.2g)ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon (2.1g) ground powdered ginger
1/2teaspoon (1g) ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon (1g) ground cloves
1/2teaspoon (1g)ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon (0.5g)groundcardamom
1/2 teaspoon (2.8g) kosher salt
1/2 cup tightly packed chopped candied orange rind (4 ounces; 113g)
1/4 cup tightly packed chopped crystallized ginger (2 ounces; 57g)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter(1/2 stick; 57g)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (5.3 ounces; 150g)
1 cup honey (12 ounces; 340g)
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon (15ml) pure vanilla extract
Nonstick spray, for greasing
For the Glaze:
3 cups confectioners' sugar (13 ounces; 375g)
1 tablespoon (15ml) kirsch, Grand Marnier, or rum (or pure vanilla extract)
3 to 4 tablespoons warm water (1.5 to 2 ounces; 45 to 60ml)
Directions
For the Dough: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast until the skins blister, about 14 minutes. Let cool slightly, then transfer nuts to a clean kitchen towel and rub together to remove the skins. Transfer nuts to a food processor and cool completely. Pulse until finely ground. Transfer to a bowl along with the almond meal, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, powdered ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cardamom, and salt.
Put the candied orange rind and crystallized ginger into food processor along with 1 cup of the dry ingredient mixture and pulse until very finely chopped. Add the remaining dry ingredients and pulse to combine.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter with brown sugar at medium speed until creamy. Add honey and beat until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and beat to combine. At very low speed, add dry ingredients by the heaping spoonful (to avoid powder eruptions) and beat until combined. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl and beat again until evenly combined.
If Making Bars: Line a half-sheet pan (13 inches by 18 inches) with parchment paper, extending paper a few inches over the short sides. Lightly spray the unlined sides of the pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the dough into a thin, even layer and bake in the center of the oven until surface is dimpled and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. The cake should be springy but firm. Let cool on a rack for 15 minutes.
If Making Individual Round Cookies: Chill dough until quite firm, about 4 hours. Working in 2 batches, line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment. Dip a 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop (2 level tablespoons) into water, shake off excess water, and scoop level scoops of dough. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart. Bake in the lower and middle thirds of the oven, shifting pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in center of cookies comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Slide parchment onto a wire rack to let cookies cool slightly while you bake the remaining cookies.
For the Glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk confectioners' sugar with kirsch and add enough water to make a thin but spreadable glaze. Spread glaze on just-warm cake or cookies and let cool completely. If making bars, slide cake (with parchment) from pan onto cutting board. Cut into 8 short strips, then cut each strip into 6 bars.
The lebkuchen can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, and improve significantly in texture and flavor if allowed to stand at least 1 day before serving.
Special Equipment
Food processor, stand mixer, half-sheet pan or cookie sheets, wire rack
- Cookies
- Baking
- Hazelnuts
- Dessert Bars
- Christmas Cookies