Lebkuchen Recipe
And of course I cannot find my notes and recipe testing from last year.
In the meantime, here is a good recipe from an Austrian cookbook called Bratapfel & Glühwein & Pfeffernüsse--so schmeckt Weihnachten":
Dough:
470 g. Sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla sugar
240 g. hazelnuts, roughly chopped
240 g. hazelnuts, finely ground (I use half ground almonds for this amount)
50 g. walnuts, roughly chopped
100 g. each candied orange and lemon peel, minced fine
grated zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
1 tbls. finely minced candied ginger (optional)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. each of: cloves, coriander, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, and allspice
150 Backoblaten (size 50 mm)
Punch glaze;
130 g. powdered sugar
2 tbl. dark rum
2 tbl. red wine
Beat the sugar, eggs, and vanille sugar until the sugar is disolved and the mixture is thick. Ingredients should be at room temperature. This will take a long time. Do not take a short cut here.
Mix the nuts, spices, and peels. Gently fold in to the egg mixture.
Cover and let sit in a cool place for 24 hours. Not refrigerated and not tightly sealed.
Preheat oven to 200C or 390 F.
Bake a test cookie first to see how the dough responds. If the dough spreads, let the dough sit for 6-8 hours. Depending on how the mixture was beaten, humidity, etc. It may not be thick enough to not run off the oblaten. In this case, gently stir in 1/4 of flour and try again.
Form little balls from appr. 15-17 g. of the dough. Set in the middle of the oblaten on a parchment lined baking sheet. Using a spatula, flaten and smooth the dough onto the oblaten, leaving a 5 mm wide band around the outside to allow for the dough to spread.
Bake Lebkuchen for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. If cookies are browning too fast, open the oven door, lower temp, and/or prop a wooden spoon in the oven door for a few minutes to get the temperature down.
Cool on racks.
Stir the glaze ingredients together into a smooth mixture. Dip each Lebkuchen into the punch glaze and return to the racks.
Decorate with candied cherries or other fruit and almond slivers if desired.
When completely dry, place Lebkuchen in tins, separate the layers with parchment paper.
Place several apple peels int the container before sealing.
Set the tins aside for at least 10 days to age.
Replace apple peel if the cookies begin to get hard.
Instead of the punch glaze, you can make a glaze with lemon juice and powdered sugar. You can also dip the cooled cookies into tempered bittersweet chocolate. You can do all three and make a nice assortment. Sprinkle the chocolate dipped Lebkuchen with little candy shot before they set. You can also decorate with almonds and cherries.
