ISO: ISO best ever German cookies

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evan

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My boyfriend just came home from Nürnberg in Germany with THE best cookies I have EVER tasted!!!

I need more of this stuff. It's like a big, soft ginger cookie - and it has a wonderful taste.

I think they are called Pfann(This might be wrong tho...) and they contain:

sugar, hazelnuts, egg whites, marzipan, candied lemon peel, candied orange peel, wheat flour, spices, honey, covering (what's that??), raising agent, ammonium carbonate, wafer and natural flavour.

I think the cookie is somewhat made on TOP of a wafer as the bottom looks like paper but tastes like a wafer.

Again, this is good stuff. I might need to send my boyfriend back for more if I cannot find a recipe that will give me somewhat similar cookies!

Does anyone know what I'm talking about??

 
These are from Basel, Switzerland. Not the same but delicious with similar ingredients..............

LECKERLI


½ C honey
½ C sugar
¼ teasp salt
1 teasp cloves
2 teasp cinnamon
¼ C diced candied orange peel
¼ C diced candied lemon peel
¼ C diced candied citron
1 egg
1 teasp baking soda
3 Tablespoons brandy
grated rind of one lemon or orange or both
1 C toasted and chopped blanched almonds
2 ¾ C flour

Put honey and sugar in a large heavy pan and bring to a boil. Stir in salt, spices and peels. Beat eggs well and stir in. Dissolve soda in brandy and add to mixture with the remaining ingredients. Stir well with wooden spoon and then knead until well blended. Pat into a thick rectangle, wrap in plastic and chill for an hour. Roll dough on lightly floured board or cloth to a rectangle about ½” thick. Lift onto cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven until set and starting to lightly brown. Remove and while still hot, brush with glaze. Cut at once into squares and place on cookie rack to cool.

Hints: Have all ingredients prepped and ready to mix before you start.

Add some of the warm mixture into the beaten eggs to warm up the eggs, then add them.

Don’t leave dough in the fridge much longer than an hour or it will be very difficult to roll.

Glaze: Mix ½ C sugar and ¼ C water, bring to boil and cook to 234 on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture spins a thread. This takes about 10 minutes. Do it while cookies are baking and keep it warm.

 
I have made these. The bottom is like an edible rice paper. I just baked them without on parchment

They need to "age" a few weeks. Top is decorated with candied cherry half in the center and sliced almonds fanned out like a daisey flower. I used green cherries on some of the cookies and red on the others. Let me know if you still want the recipe. I think mine used candied citron & honey.

 
That's the one!! I don't know if they ship or not. I'll have to ask

my better half. His german is very good. My german is like my latin: Non existent!!! smileys/bigsmile.gif

 
Nurnberger Lebkuchen Rounds Cookies

GERMAN CHRISTMAS COOKIES (Nurnberger Lebkuchen Rounds)

(Cookies need to be aged at least 2 weeks)

1 cup honey
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tb lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2-1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp EACH ground allspice, ground cloves, AND ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp EACH salt and baking soda
1/3 cup EACH finely chopped candied citron AND finely chopped almonds
About 10 whole candied cherries red and or green, cut in half
blanched almonds for decorating (slices or on smaller cookies slivered will be fine)

Glaze: 1 cup unsifted powdered sugar & 5 Tb rum or water. stir together until smooth

Heat honey in small pan until it just begins to bubble. Remove from heat, cool slightly. stir in brown sugar, egg, lemon juice & zest until blended. Cool to lukewarm. In large bowl stir together flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, salt & soda. Add honey mixture, citron & chopped almonds, stirring until well blended (dough will be soft. Cover & chill 8 hours up to 2 days. Important step!

Work with 1/4 dough at a time, keeping the rest well-chilled. On a heavily floured board with floured rolling pin, roll out to 3/8 inch thickness. You can cut with 3-1/2 inch round cutters to make around 20 cookies or 2-1/2 inch cutters to make 46 cookies. My advice after making these many times is to do the smaller cookies as these are quite rich and sweet. Use parchment paper to cover cookie sheets, & grease slightly. Place cookies 2 inches apart. Decorate with a cherry half in center & surround with 3-5 almond slices or slivers in a flower design, pushing these in slightly. Bake in a pre-heated 375 º oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately brush glaze over top with a pastry brush. If parchment paper was used, brush glaze over bottom of cookie as soon as top is dry. (Original recipe called for baking the cookies on edible paper rounds instead of parchment but I never used them.)

Pack cookies airtight in a tin & keep at room temperature at least 2 weeks to age. May be stored for 3 months. If cookies get slightly hard, add a thin slice of raw apple to storage container & let sit for one day or until cookies are moist again.

This recipe came from Sunset Magazine, November 1976

 
Luisa (I'm sorry I added an extra "o" in the post above! ;-( - Thank you so much!

I cannot believe you have kept this recipe since 1976! Wow! I'm making these tomorrow already!

You really made my day! I cannot thank you enough. I really, really appreciate it!!! (((HUG)))

 
Janet, thank you for sharing. I will

definitely try these. I think the orange and lemon peel gives the cakes such a fresh taste. I might try to add some marzipan to it....heck, you know - this could work very well!!

Thank you so much for posting this recipe!!! smileys/smile.gif

 
Eva, some more info...

They are indeed the Nürnberg Elisen Lebkuchen.

They are amazing cookies as you found out. That said, I have been trying to recreate those made in Bavaria for over 15 years and still have not managed to do it. I have recipes from Germany in German that appear to be right on, but they have not exactly duplicated the ones for sale in Bavaria. Most of the English language ones you can find in American cookbooks and on the net are what I call "Betty Crocker does German" and they usually fall quite short of the desired original. For instance, the recipe posted above is very different than those cookies baked in Germany and is an American adaptation. By German law, Lebkucken must be, by weight, something like 60% ground nuts (instead of flour), they are held together with beaten eggs and contain very little, if any, flour.

Each year I make notes and try again. I have the real German cookies in the freezer to compare and many of my ingredients (Hartshornsalz, Oblaten, etc.) were purchased in Munich.

I'm going to my candied fruit supplier just now to get my peels and will be once again trying to recreate the authentic Bavarian original. I'll post my results and the adapted recipe that I'm using when I'm finished.

Also, there are several forms of the Lebkuchen. The sugar glazed are the most common. You can also get them with a chocolate coating, and my favorite, a rum infused version that is also dipped in chocolate. These are called Punch Lebkuchen and are out of this world. (A friend of mine described it: When I die, this is the last taste I want in my mouth.)

I'll let you know how things turn out.

 
Richard, we do have a project!!! I am throwing myself at this task and I will

keep you updated!

As it is, I also have a US friend living in Germany.
I'll ask her to do some search for us in German cook books. She happens to live outside Nürnberg so maybe she knows a secret or two! smileys/wink.gif

I'll keep you posted!!

 
Yes, let's!

I'm at the office and don't have access to my recipes, but I'll go ahead and post the German versions I have tonight for your comarison.

 
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