Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen is a German cookie or bar that’s similar to gingerbread. It’s often associated with Christmas markets and celebrations, but you can, of course, have it any time of year. It’s also one of those recipes where families and regions can be very protective of their own versions, insisting that any other recipes simply aren’t “correct.” Some lebkuchen (particularly that made in Nuremburg) is made with ground nuts instead of wheat flour, and many are made with either ground or candied ginger, or both.

This version uses all-purpose flour with ground walnuts but contains no ginger; you’ll use molasses and other spices like allspice and cinnamon to give these bars that warm, sweet and spicy flavor. A crackly powdered-sugar glaze makes this lebkuchen a real treat.

Don’t let the long list of ingredients fool you. Most of them are common spices or pantry staples. While some lebkuchen recipes take days to make, this one takes less than an hour from start to finish.

Lebkuchen Ingredients

• Butter: The butter adds fat and moisture, and it also helps the sugar and brown sugar spread evenly throughout the lebkuchen once you cream the three together. Creaming also helps add more air to the butter, and thus into the batter when everything is mixed together.
• Sugar: White sugar helps give the dough a little more lift after creaming.
• Brown sugar: Brown sugar’s molasses content adds moisture and a fuller flavor to the batter.
• Eggs: Eggs act as binders for the batter ingredients. Let them warm to room temperature before adding them in.
• Molasses: Molasses adds a lot of flavor and makes the lebkuchen taste a little more like you’d expect gingerbread to taste. Remember, there’s no actual ginger in this German lebkuchen recipe, but adding ingredients associated with gingery baked goods, like molasses and cinnamon, helps with the illusion.
• Buttermilk: Add buttermilk, and you’ll get both a tangy flavor that balances out the sweeter ingredients and an acidic ingredient to help the baking soda make the batter rise.
• Anise extract: The anise adds a flavor that’s similar to licorice but sweeter. Use an extract for a milder flavor that won’t overtake the other spices.
• All-purpose flour: While many lebkuchen recipes use ground nuts in place of flour, this one uses all-purpose flour.
• Baking powder and baking soda: Using both baking powder and soda might seem redundant, but both belong here because of the buttermilk. The buttermilk and baking soda will react together to create lift in the batter, but sometimes the amount of buttermilk is too much for the soda to work effectively. The solution might seem to be to add more baking soda, but that can reduce the tangy flavor of the buttermilk. Instead, you add baking powder. The soda within the powder helps the rise, while the cream of tartar in the powder reacts with that extra soda. This preserves the buttermilk’s flavor because the extra soda doesn’t need to react with the buttermilk.
• Cinnamon: Cinnamon pairs up with the molasses to give these bars that almost-gingery flavor.
• Ground allspice, cardamom and cloves: These increase the warm aroma and flavor.
• Ground walnuts: Ground nuts add fat and moisture to the flour without requiring liquid.
• Raisins: These sweet morsels provide some chewiness.
• Pitted dates: Dates also add sweetness and a chewy texture.
• Candied lemon peel, orange peel and pineapple: Three types of candied citrus peels and fruit increase the “gingery” flavor and give the otherwise dense bars a bright, refreshing taste.
• Coconut: Another sweet and chewy ingredient. It’s not traditional but pairs well with the candied citrus and pineapple.

Glaze:

• Sugar: The glaze for the lebkuchen contains two types of sugar; white sugar helps make the glaze shiny.
• Confectioners’ sugar: Confectioner’s sugar, or powdered sugar, contains some cornstarch that helps dry out the glaze and makes it crackle on top. It also gives the glaze a whitish color.

Directions

Step 1: Prep the oven and the pan

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Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a 15x10x1-inch baking pan with parchment paper.

Step 2: Combine most of the ingredients

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In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, five to seven minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Next, beat in the molasses, buttermilk and anise extract. Then, in another large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, allspice, cardamom and cloves. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients, stirring them in well, then add the walnuts.

Step 3: Add the fruit and bake

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Put the raisins, dates, lemon peel, coconut, orange peel and pineapple in a food processor, and pulse until they’re chopped and mixed. Stir them all into the batter, then press the batter into the pan. Bake the lebkuchen for 25 to 28 minutes or until the top is lightly browned.

Editor’s Tip: The batter may seem stiff and dry when you press it into the pan.

Step 4: Prepare the glaze

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In a saucepan, bring the white sugar and water to a boil, and boil for one minute. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the confectioners’ sugar. Spread the glaze over the warm lebkuchen, the place it on a wire rack and let it cool completely.

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Lebkuchen Variations

• Top the glaze with slivered or sliced almonds: Many versions of lebkuchen are made in round cookie form, and it’s common to find sliced almonds arranged on the glaze as a garnish. You can add those here too. Create patterns if you like, or just sprinkle the almonds on top after applying the glaze.
• Swap the candied fruit with grated lemon and orange zest: If you can’t find candied lemon or orange peel, you can try using grated zest instead. Teaspoons of zest provide the same flavor as cups of candied peel, so you’ll use much less zest in terms of amount. That means the texture of the bars will change.
• Try a chocolate glaze: If you have a favorite chocolate glaze that dries and forms a crackly top, go ahead and use that instead of the plain glaze.

How to Store Lebkuchen

Once the lebkuchen has cooled, cut it into bars and place them in an airtight container. Store at room temperature. Lebkuchen can last anywhere from one to four weeks, but like any other cookie or bar, storage conditions affect it greatly. Ensuring the container is airtight and not placed in an excessively warm environment is important.

Can you freeze lebkuchen?

Lebkuchen freezes well. Cut the lebkuchen into bars and place them on a flat pan. Freeze them for a few hours, then put the bars in a freezer-safe bag or container and eat them within three months. You can also wrap each bar in plastic wrap before putting it in the freezer container. Don’t place unfrozen bars all together in the bag or container because they’ll just freeze together in one big block; always put them through that initial flat-freezing stage first.

Lebkuchen Tips

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Why are the bars so hard?

Freshly baked lebkuchen can be very dense. Letting the bars sit for a day or two in an airtight container before eating them improves their flavor and texture.

How do you stop lebkuchen bars from sticking to each other in storage?

If you’re storing the bars in a smaller container that requires you to stack them, place a sheet of parchment paper between each layer. That will make it easier to remove a bar without affecting the one underneath it.

Why does some lebkuchen have a paper liner?

You may have seen cookie-style lebkuchen with what looks like a paper liner stuck to the bottom. This is called an oblaten wafer, and it’s an edible wheat wafer meant to help stop the lebkuchen from sticking to the pan. When lebkuchen were first invented, monks placed the cookies on communion wafers for this same purpose. The oblaten wafer eventually replaced the communion wafer.