Lebkuchen

The dough is stored for weeks before baking and ferments while it waits.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (milk), honey.

Ingredients

• 500 g honey
• 150 g sugar
• 100 g butter
• 400 g rye flour
• 200 g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground aniseed
• zest of 1 lemon
• 100 g ground almonds
• 2 teaspoons potash or baking powder
• 2 tablespoons milk

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS STORED FOR WEEKS BEFORE BAKING AND FERMENTS WHILE IT WAITS. Its History records how that was found out: bakers NOTICED THAT HONEY-SWEETENED DOUGH WOULD UNDERGO A NATURAL FERMENTATION PROCESS WHEN STORED IN A COOL LOCATION FOR SEVERAL WEEKS. The waiting is not resting; it is a slow ferment in a dough with almost no water in it.
2. WHICH IS WHY THERE IS NO YEAST IN THE LIST. Honey carries its own organisms and the sugar concentration is too high for anything to work quickly. Weeks, not hours.
3. AND IT IS HONEY-SWEETENED, NOT SUGAR-SWEETENED. The article's own description is HONEY-SWEETENED GERMAN CAKES, MOULDED COOKIES OR BAR COOKIES, and it notes they are SIMILAR TO GINGERBREAD without being it.
4. WARM THE HONEY, SUGAR AND BUTTER TOGETHER AND COOL THEM COMPLETELY. Warm enough to combine, never boiling. Hot honey poured onto flour cooks the starch and the dough goes hard.
5. MIX THE DOUGH STIFF AND DO NOT KNEAD IT. Rye has little gluten and the dough wants to be dense. It will be heavy and sticky and that is right.
6. NOW PUT IT AWAY SOMEWHERE COOL FOR TWO TO FOUR WEEKS, covered. It darkens, softens and starts to smell faintly of beer. This is the step the article describes and the one nobody expects.
7. THE RAISING AGENT GOES IN AT THE END, NOT THE BEGINNING. Potash slaked in the milk, or baking powder, worked into the rested dough just before rolling -- otherwise it is spent long before the oven.
8. ROLL IT A CENTIMETRE THICK AND CUT IT, or press it into moulds, which is where moulded cookies in the article's description comes from.
9. A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY DEGREES FOR TWELVE TO FIFTEEN MINUTES ONLY. They should still be soft when they come out; they firm as they cool and go hard if overbaked.
10. THEY SOFTEN AGAIN OVER A FORTNIGHT IN A TIN WITH A PIECE OF APPLE. Baked hard is not a fault, it is a stage.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes