Lebkuchen biscuits – Traditional German Gingerbread

This Lebkuchen Biscuits Recipe is traditional German recipe baked at Christmas. It’s a soft version of a gingerbread biscuits made with honey and gingerbread spice. Traditionally iced with rum sugar icing and dipped in chocolate.

These Lebkuchen biscuits improve with time and are great to give as little gifts at Christmas time. This recipe is moderately difficult (mainly because of the different steps), but I’ve given you plenty of options for shortcuts, so if you don’t want to go follow the traditional recipe, you don’t need to.

Top tips on making this recipe

Don’t substitute the ingredients too much, as it changes the biscuits flavour and you might also have problems with your biscuits spreading too much and not holding their shape

Leave the dough to rest overnight (rather than just for 30 minutes) if you have the time

Dip the biscuits in your icing immediately when they come out from the oven. This makes them nice and soft and you get the icing crackle on the top.

Weigh the individual pieces of biscuit dough before you roll them out. This will help them to bake evenly and you won’t end up with some biscuits slightly underdone and some too brown.

Roll the biscuits dough into perfect balls and don’t squash them. They will gradually spread out into a dome shape.

If you want the biscuits as a present, I would recommend that you dip them in the chocolate. This seals the biscuit in with the rum icing on the top and keeps the biscuit protected (it doesn’t dry or go mouldy)

This recipe makes about 20 6cm round biscuits, so if you are planning to make more, just double or triple the recipe.

Ingredients & Substitutions

Flour

Although I tend to use gluten free flour for most of my baking now, I’ve used plain white (gluten) flour for this recipe to make sure that it comes out perfectly.

I’ve not tried any other types of flour with this recipe, but next time I’ll try a bit of spelt flour as I think it would work really nicely with the gingerbread spice.

Gingerbread Spice

The traditional ginger bread spice mix is quite spicey, so if you prefer you can use mixed spice, which is slightly milder or even just a mix of cinnamon and any other festive spice mix like nutmeg, cloves, pepper or ginger or different mixes like Christmas Stolen Spice Mix.

The intensity of flavour depends on personal taste. The traditional Lebkuchen Biscuits can be quite peppery, but if you prefer a slightly lighter taste, add less spice.

Honey

I always make this recipe with honey and don’t substitute it for anything else. This is mainly about the tradition and taste.

Technically you can substitute the honey for maple, coconut or date syrup, golden syrup or light corn syrup. It will change the taste of the biscuits, so just bear this in mind when you are going rogue.

Icing sugar

Using icing sugar as oppose to any other sugar makes a huge difference. It makes the biscuits softer and blends straightaway into the dough mix.

Rum Icing

Although the icing is made with real rum, the rum disappears pretty quickly the minute you dip the biscuits into the icing. To get the lovely crackling effect on top of the biscuits, it’s best to dip the biscuits in straight out of the oven.

If you don’t want to use rum, you can use lemon instead or water.

I’ve also used a bit of egg white to make sure that the icing sticks really well to my biscuits. This is particularly useful if you are thinking of giving the biscuits as a present and you want them to last a bit longer.

How to make your lebkuchen biscuits

Mix all dry ingredients (flour, spice, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, icing sugar) together first in a medium size bowl.

Melt gently butter in a small bowl (in the microwave for few seconds) or leave out next to a warm oven to melt.

Add honey into the butter and mix

Pour the honey and butter into the flour mixture and add the egg.

• 

• 

Stir everything together and work into a soft dough. It will be fairly sloppy, but it shouldn’t be runny type of dough. Wrap in a plastic bag and leave to rest (min 30 minutes, but better overnight or 8-12 hrs).

Preheat your oven to 160C (electric fan oven).

Divide the dough into 20 pieces. I’ve weighted mine and they were 20 grams each (I ended up with 21 pieces).

Roll each piece into a ball and place on the lined tray. Keep apart at least 10 cm as the biscuits will spread.

• 

• 

Bake in the middle shelf for 15 minutes (they should be golden brown and only slightly darker on the edges).

Whilst the biscuits are in the oven, prepare your icing by mixing together the icing sugar, rum and egg white.

When your biscuits are baked, take them out of the oven and immediately dip them into the icing. Leave to set on a cooling rack set over another large oven tray (to catch the rum icing if it drips).

When your biscuits are completely dry (this might take 2-3 hrs), melt gently about 100 grams of dark chocolate and carefully dip just the bottoms of the biscuits into the chocolate. Leave to set on clean baking sheet.

Enjoyed this recipe? Share it with your friends or pin it for later …