Lebkuchen (German Christmas Cookies)
- 120 g hazelnuts
- 120 g hazelnut powder or almond powder
- 25 g walnuts
- 50 g candied orange peel
- 50 g candied lemon peel
- 10 g candied ginger
- 1/2 orange - use the zest
- 1/2 lemon - use the zest
- 20 g lebkuchen spice mix
- 1/2 vanilla bean (scrap out the beans)
- 50 g flour
- 3 eggs (180 g)
- 235 g powdered sugar
- 16 oblaten wafers
- Mix all the nuts, spices, citrus peel, vanilla and flour (every except for eggs and sugar and wafers) into a bowl.
- Working in batches, grind the mixture into a rough meal using a food processor.
- Don't make it into a powder - leave some graininess so the cookies will have a good texture.
- In a metal bowl, beat the eggs and powdered sugar together until all the white powder disappears.
- Heat some water in a big frying pan or pot on the stove, place the egg mixture bowl in the hot water and heat it until it's 40-43C (you need to make it hot so it brings out the stickiness in the eggs).
- Transfer to a mixer or use a beater, and beat the egg mix on low medium speed until it thickens up and turns a little white (You probably have to reheat the eggs at least one time).
- Beating them to this consistency will give your cookies a wonderful sticky texture!
- Add the spice and nut mixture to the egg mixture and gently mix.
- Cover and let rest for one hour - this will help the mixture thicken up more.
- After one hour, it's time to put the 'dough' on the oblaten!
- One good way to do this is place a wine glass on the table upside down, put an oblaten wafer on the bottom of the glass and use it as a stand to work on.
- Using a dough scraper card, scoop up a big dollop of the lebkuchen dough and gently scrap it onto the oblaten wafer (scoop up more than you need so you have enough to work with)
- While rotating the glass around, gently scrap the dough from the center to the sides - try to leave the center as high as possible like you are trying to form a pyramid.
- The middle should be nice and thick or else you'll end up with flat lebkuchen.
- Place the finished lebkuchen on a baking sheet one by one.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 200C/400F
- Remove from oven.
- For the sugar coating: brush half of the cookies with thick sugar water/syrup immediately.
- After the syrup dries, it will give the cookies a nice white frosted look.
- For the chocolate covered ones, you have to wait until they dry completely to do the chocolate.
- When cooled, melt chocolate in a double boiler (Put chocolate in a small metal bowl, heat a pan of water and place the bowl on the hot water until chocolate melts)
- Brush over lebkuchen and decorate with almond slivers if you like.
- Let chocolate dry completely.
- All done!
hazelnuts, hazelnut powder, walnuts, candied orange, candied ginger, orange , lemon use the zest, lebkuchen spice mix, vanilla bean, flour, eggs, powdered sugar, oblaten wafers
Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/326016-lebkuchen-german-christmas-cookies (may not work)