CC Lebkuchen

As the year draws to a close, I am very pleased to present you with Lebkuchen for the last in my year of the Cookbook Challenge.  I will reflect on the challenge at the end of the post but firstly let's talk bikkies.  These lebkuchen were excellent and made great gifts.  My only hesitation in posting them was that I wanted to try them with chocolate but we have so much rich food about the house leftover from Christmas that I can't justify any more baking right now. 

The chocolate lebkuchen will have to wait until next year.  It's a shame because I just know I would love them.  One of my favourite biscuits that I bought on my travels in Germany and have since found at speciality shops in Melbourne is chocolate covered gingerbread.  I like them even better than the thinly iced lebkuchen.  I planned to use a chocolate glaze such as the one suggested in the book (see pics in book above) but I have since seen that Homemade by Fleur covered hers with melted chocolate.  This makes more sense as I was concerned that the glaze would not set enough to store the biscuits.

Meanwhile I loved these biscuits.  Sylvia and I made two batches of biscuits for gifts.  Chocolate cut out cookies and Lebkuchen.  It was interesting to compare the two.  The chocolate biscuits were full of butter, made very soft dough and melted in the mouth.  The lebkuchen were more sturdy and equally delicious.  They had far less butter and were quite easy to work with once they had been in the fridge for 4 hours.

I was glad to leave the dough in the fridge until Sylvia was in bed.  She helped with getting the two batches of dough together but she was in a rascally mood.  She tasted cocoa (and cried at the taste), knocked an open jar of flour to the floor, and got Dolly's green dolly stuck in an empty spice jar.  It was far easier to cut out and bake the biscuits without her.  Much as I love her helping making gifts.

The biscuits were being made for Sylvia's child care workers who have looked after her all year.  I had planned to make them earlier so we could ice them but ran out of time.  The lebkuchen for the gift packs were uniced.  (To package, I put them in labelled ziplock bags inside the green bags that we decorated with lots of stickers.)  

One of Sylvia's carers was particularly delighted with the gift because it reminded her of spending weeks baking Christmas gifts with her mum when young.  We also packaged some for one of E's colleagues. 

The next day I thought it would be fun for Sylvia to help decorate the remaining biscuits.  She loved it.  To keep it simple we chose a colour for each biscuit and she sprinkled it after I iced it.  Somehow she ended up with a blue smile.  The icing gave them a wee lift but I think the combination of spices and citrus was the real genius of these bikkies.  On the first day they were a bit dry but they softened and took on that love dense gingerbread texture after a few days.  Simply scrumptious.

Back to the Cookbook Challenge.  I was quite tentative in joining this group which challenged us to cook from any cookbook using a different theme each fortnight.  I am delighted to have completed all 26 of the challenges.  I have recorded what I have cooked on my Cookbook Challenge page.

When I look back over the range of dishes I have cooked I am very grateful to the challenge for pushing me to try recipes that might otherwise have remained forgotten in the depths of my bookshelves.  I am just sad that the content on the community site has been removed and it seems that the challenge will not happen next year.

However I am sure there will be new challenges next year.  And I hope there might be some chocolate covered lebkucken.  Meanwhile I hope to squeeze in one more post next year if I can find time in between haggis and the tattoo.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Nut roast parcels and potato snowmen
This time two years ago: Christmas Day panforte and more
This time three years ago: Christmas, Leftovers and Vegan Mayonnaise
This time four years ago: Christmas dinner for two

Lebkuchen
From Annie Rigg's Christmas Cooking with Kids
Made about 42

• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp treacle
• 40g unsalted butter
• 75g dark brown sugar
• zest of half an orange
• zest of half a lemon
• 225g self raising flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground spice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• generous grating of nutmeg
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch salt
• 50g ground almonds
• 1 large egg lightly beaten
• icing or melted chocolate for frosting biscuits
• sprinkles to decorate

Heat honey, treacle, butter, brown sugar and zests in a medium saucepan.  Stir until butter is melted and everything is well combined.  Cool slightly.

Meanwhile, place flour, spices, salt and almonds in a large bowl.  Add melted butter mixture and egg.  Stir until a ball of dough forms.  Briefly knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  Wrap in clingfilm and refridgerate for 4 hours.

When you are ready to cut biscuits, preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and line 2 to 3 oven trays with baking paper.  Roll out dough on a floured surface until it is about 0.5cm thick.  Cut shapes with biscuit cutters and transfer onto prepared trays.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown (I found mine were quite well cooked after 15 minutes).  Cool on a wire tray.

When cool, either ice with a plain icing (I think I used about 1 cup icing sugar, a knob of butter and a bit of hot water - it needs to be quite thin) or melted chocolate and sprinkles.

On the stereo
Music to watch the girls go by: Various Artists