My Grandmother always made these for us. So I took some tips from her. I put the dough in a plastic bag with flour to chill over night. When we are ready to make the cookies, we just take the bag of dough out of the fridge, and roll them into balls and bake them on a greased cookie sheet. It is fairly sticky though, most recipes like this are. But this way, you don't have to worry about rolling out the dough, and making a sticky mess :) Also, we wait for the cookies to cool, then dip the top in the lemon glaze, that way more glaze stays on the cookies, and doesn't just slide off of them because they're so hot :)
This is the second year I have used this recipe. The Lebkuchen turn out wonderful and my german father can't get enough of them says they remind him of when he was a boy. My husband loves them just as much! They are great with coffee and good with or without the fruit.
These cookies are the best I made a double batch of cookies and 1 of icing and still had some left over. I am taking 3 dozen for our cookie exchange next week. I am very pleased with this recipe. I remember having these as a kid so thanks for the memory too.
Though I'm only a little bit German I first had Lebkuchen in German class. I didn't know what I thought of it at first but over the years I find to love it. I used this recipe for a German projekte and it was loved by all! Thanks this is the best!!
I lived in Germany for 3 years and really miss good Lebkuchen from the Christmas Market especially the one in Heidelberg. I Just tried this recipe and it's WAY better than I was expecting. Has the same texture I remember and the flavor is not too spicy but mellow. I used white sugar instead of brown (figuring why bother using brown with so much molasses). I also divided the recipe and made half of it with an additional cup of ground almonds and a tsp of almond extract just to see the difference. Both ways were perfect and I will be gifting these to my friends as well as adding them to my "must haves" for Christmas. Yes the dough is sticky but if you roll them into balls and flatten them (greased hands help) and use parchment paper on your cookie sheets then they make the cutest little circles and bake in about 10 minutes at 375F. (I didn't even bother to chill just used my cookie scoop aka tiny ice cream scoop on the soft dough then rolled in my hands and used plastic wrap to press on top into rounds to keep my hands clean).
Yummy yummy! Dough is not intended to make fancy shapes. Also MUST chill for few hours before rolling out. I prefer to press dough out into floured jelly roll pan (not greased) and cut into bars after baking. Then glaze/frost before taking bars out of pan. Need to separate layers in container with wax or parchment paper.
well I am no expert but when I made the dough it was very very sticky - totally unrollable. Needed more flour. Then once the cookies are made they are etremely sweet. not the traditional German flavour by my reckoning.
These Lebkuchen are delicious but quite a bit of work. The dough was very tempermental but it could have been because I was trying to make little gingerbread-type people out of them. With enough flour and a lot of patience they came out better on the second try. Royal icing with a little lemon extract was perfect for decorating my little Lebkuchen people!
Was a little sweeter than I like. Would like to try it again with reduced amount of brown sugar.
