TOP 3 recipes for making German Christmas gingerbread Lebkuchen at home. Cooking tips and secrets. Video recipes.
German gingerbread Lebkuchen has been around for centuries. Initially, the delicacy was a ceremonial cookie in the form of honey cakes made of flour. But gradually spicy spices began to be added to the dough, from which the pastry acquired its name. Today, gingerbread is prepared in different ways, and they are popular all over the world. One of the most delicious gingerbread is the German Lebkuchen. These delicious baked goods are a part of the Christmas season in Germany.
Secrets and Cooking Tips
- Lebkuchen gingerbread can be made from rye, wheat and corn flour, or platter.
- The thickness of the product is from 0.5 mm to 1 cm. The thicker the gingerbread, the softer it is inside.
- The dough for gingerbread can be infused up to 2 weeks.
- Any spice is used for baking: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, anise, allspice, star anise, dried orange and lemon zest, and even chili powder.
- They make products in the form of small figures: stars, Christmas trees, animals, little men, Christmas bells.
- Before baking, you can make a ribbon hole in each Christmas gingerbread and use it to decorate the Christmas tree.
- Lebkuchen is decorated with egg, lemon or chocolate icing, sprinkled with chopped nuts, coconut.
- Gingerbreads are stored for a very long time, while remaining fragrant and not stale. The main thing is to keep them in a tin or glass container with a tight lid.
Lebkuchen made from rye flour
Spicy German gingerbread Lebkuchen made from rye flour are distinguished by their unique taste and a palette of aromatic spices.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 539 kcal.
- Servings Per Container - 12 Servings
- Cooking time - 1 day
Ingredients:
- Rye flour - 500 g
- Brown sugar (cane) - 400 g
- Coarse flour - 300 g
- Hazelnut - 140 g
- Eggs - 4 pcs.
- Egg yolk - 2 pcs.
- Cocoa powder - 20 g
- Honey - 12 tablespoons
- Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
- Milk - 3 tablespoons
- Soda - 2 tsp
- Candied orange peel - 100 g
- Butter - 90 g
- Ground cloves - 1 tsp
- Lemon - 1 pc., Candied lemon peel - 60 g, Raisins - 100 g
Making Lebkuchen from rye flour:
- Cut nuts, orange and lemon peel into small pieces.
- Pour the raisins with cold water to swell. Then drain the liquid, pat dry with a kitchen towel and grind.
- Grate the lemon zest on a fine grater.
- Cut the butter into slices and heat to room temperature.
- Beat eggs with a mixer until smooth, yellow mass.
- Combine cane sugar with honey and heat, stirring occasionally, until liquid, homogeneous.
- Add softened butter to the hot honey-sugar mixture, stir, pour the eggs and beat with a mixer.
- Combine two types of flour, soda, cocoa and all dry spices.
- Pour the flour mixture into the butter-honey mixture in small portions.
- Add candied fruits, nuts, raisins and lemon zest to the dough. Mix everything well until a homogeneous dense mass is obtained.
- Roll the finished dough into a "kolobok", wrap with foil and put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then refrigerate overnight.
- Roll the chilled dough into a layer 5 mm thick and cut the gingerbread cookies of any shape with pastry molds.
- Put the gingerbread cookies on a baking sheet covered with paper, at a short distance from each other.
- Whisk the milk with the egg yolks until smooth and glaze the surface of the cookies.
- Send the German Lebkuchen gingerbread cookies to a preheated oven to 175 ° C for 13-15 minutes.
Wheat flour lebkuchen
Beautiful, mouth-watering, tasty and aromatic German Lebkuchen gingerbread made from wheat flour. They will decorate the festive table and the New Year tree.
Ingredients:
- Wheat flour - 250 g
- Ground almonds into flour - 85 g
- Gingerbread seasoning - 3 tsp
- Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
- Cookie powder - 1 tsp
- Soda - 0.5 tsp
- Liquid honey - 200 ml.
- Butter - 85 g
- Candied orange fruits - 100 g
- Powdered sugar - 2 tbsp.
- Hot water - 2 tbsp.
Making Lebkuchen from Wheat Flour:
- Mix all dry foods: flour, almond flour, seasonings, powder and baking soda.
- Melt the butter and honey and cool to room temperature.
- Combine the dry mixture with the butter-honey mass, candied fruits and mix. Cover with a towel, leave to cool and thicken.
- Then roll the dough into balls the size of a walnut, place them on a baking sheet at a distance of 2 cm from each other and lightly press down with a spoon, flattening.
- Bake Lebkuchen from wheat flour in the oven at 180 ° C for 15 minutes.
- When the finished Lebkuchen has cooled, cover it with glaze. To do this, rub the powdered sugar with hot water with a mixer so that there are no breasts, and dip the gingerbread into the resulting mass. Leave them to dry the frosting.
Spicy Nuremberg Lebkuchen Gingerbread
The basis of Nuremberg gingerbread Lebkuchen is a syrup of honey and sugar. A large amount of spices are used in the recipe, which makes the gingerbread aromatic and tasty.
Ingredients:
- Honey - 200 ml.
- Margarine - 100 g
- Eggs - 1 pc.
- Wheat flour - 500 g
- Ground spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, coriander) - 30 g
- Baking powder - 1 tablespoon
- Liqueur Baileys - 2 tablespoons
- Fresh tangerine zest - 1 tablespoon
- Dark chocolate - 150 g
- Cream 33% - 100 ml
Making Spicy Nuremberg Lebkuchen Gingerbread:
- Put honey, sugar and margarine in a container and, stirring, heat until a homogeneous liquid mass. Then cool to room temperature.
- Combine flour with spices, baking powder, zest and pour in bailey, honey mixture and eggs.
- Knead the dough, shape into a ball and refrigerate overnight.
- Then roll it into a layer 7-8 mm thick, cut out the figures and put the products on a baking sheet.
- Bake Lebkuchen Spicy Nuremberg Gingerbread for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 ° C.
- Melt the chocolate, stir with warmed cream, stir and dip the prepared gingerbread cookies in the ganache. Cool baked goods in a cool place.
