Lebkuchen Recipe - Festive Flavours from a Christmas Market (2024)

FAQs

What Flavour is Lebkuchen? ›

Lebkuchen range in taste from spicy to sweet and come in a variety of shapes with round being the most common. The ingredients usually include honey, spices such as aniseed, cardamom, coriander, cloves, ginger, and allspice, nuts including almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts, or candied fruit.

Lebkuchen (pronounced leyb-koo-kuh n) is a centuries-old German spiced treat traditionally baked during the winter holiday season. While lebkuchen is often translated to English as gingerbread, it's not exactly what most Americans envision when they think of gingerbread.

In Germany, when you think of Christmas, you think of Nuremberg Lebkuchen, the city's famous gingerbread. These sweet and spicy treats have been baked for more than 600 years and are loved by young and old alike. Orignial Nuremberg Elisenlebkuchen - a culinary delight!

Traditionally, you'll find the Nürnberger Lebkuchen, the Elisen Lebkuchen, the Lebkuchenherzen, the chocolate-filled ones, the ones with candied citron, the ones with ground nuts, and the list goes on. These are among the many of the traditional German Christmas cookies found at Christmas markets throughout Germany.

Lebkuchen is the general name for a variety of different cookies and pastries that are made with this combination of ingredients. Lebkuchen can be round or square or rectangular. The cookies can be glazed or not glazed. And if they are glazed it can be white or chocolate.

The general term of gingerbread is used to describe the broad category of baked goods which are flavoured with the spice blend of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, anise and molasses/honey.

Lebkuchenherzen: a somewhat harder dough is used to create the large heart-shaped Lebkuchen decorated with icing that you'll find dangling on coloured strings from the roofs of sweet stalls at Christmas markets – and at festivals throughout the rest of the year.

Originally Answered: What are Keks and what are Plätzchen in German? Keks = Cookie. Just a cookie.

(So if you're thinking this recipe will simply be an excellent gingerbread cookie, you'll be disappointed.) The most obvious difference between the two cookies is that lebkuchen is made from nut flours, not wheat flour, and uses brown sugar in place of molasses.

It most likely stems from the Latin word “libum” meaning flat cake or sacrifice cake. In early times, people sacrificed to gods what was most important to them: bread, also called “Laib.” Throughout the years “Laibkuchen” turned into “Lebkuchen.” Lebkuchen go back to Teutonic times.

What is interesting about Lebkuchen? ›

The dessert's roots can be traced to the 13th century when spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg were introduced to Europe. Franconian Monks are believed to have been the first to combine honey, spices, and breadcrumbs to create a sweet, flavorful dough. Lebkuchen has become associated with the holidays since then.

According to old Austro-German legend, Perchta is a malevolent pagan goddess who stalks the snowy landscape by night during the Twelve Days of Christmas. Like Italy's Christmas witch, La Befana, she is also associated with the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January.

In Germany, people use an Adventskranz, or advent wreath, with four candles on it to celebrate the four advents or the four Sundays before Christmas. On each of the four Sundays preceding Christmas Eve, a candle is lit. After lightning the first candle, the Christmas season officially begins.

Pfeffernusse and lebkuchen are both similarly flavored with honey and lots of warm baking spices but pfeffernusse are almost always small, rounded cookies coated with a powdered sugar glaze, while lebkuchen may be shaped like regular cookies or cut in bars and are generally glazed with chocolate.

Lebkuchen are traditional German Christmas cookies. Whether you make traditional circles or cut into stars and hearts, friends and family will love these Christmas biscuits. You can decorate them in so many ways as well.

Lebkuchen is a traditional German cookie that is usually baked for Christmas. It is most like a soft gingerbread cookie, made with molasses and full of warm spices. The glaze provides the perfect complement, a little sweet and with a hint of lemon.

What is Lebkuchen? Most dictionaries translate Lebkuchen as “gingerbread”, but that's not quite right. “Gingerbread-like”, perhaps. Consider it a rich, dry, soft biscuit pastry that traditionally uses plenty of honey and spices.

Gingerbread is a classic treat that is especially popular during the holiday season. It can be presented in a variety of forms from cookies to houses to little men. No matter its appearance, the taste is always pleasantly sweet with a mild, peppery kick.