Christmas Lebkuchen (Honey And Ginger Cookie) Recipe

As promised, here’s the recipe for the Lebkuchen decoration. Lebkuchen is a traditional German Christmas cookie, similar to ginger bread. It’s spicy, and normally comes with sugar icing on the top. There’s a lot of different recipes around and some prefers the very soft and thick cookies, some like it thin and crunchy. My aim was to make thinner cookies, primarily to use them to decorate the Christmas tree. Read here how did we do that: How to decorate your Christmas tree with Lebkuchen ornaments  They are also really tasty at the same time and they will keep soft for a few days. You can also make thicker ones from this dough recipe. Super easy, super quick. It shouldn’t take you more than 25 minutes to prepare the dough and cut the cookies, plus another 10 minutes of baking time.

The tradition of Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen was invented by German monks in the 13th century. They are are traditional Christmas cookies made with honey, spices, nuts and sometimes candied fruit. They are soft, chewy, full of festive spices – and give your home a wonderful Christmas fragrance. They make perfect Christmas gifts or treats.

Lebkuchen spices

Ginger and cinnamon are standard in most versions but you can mix and match all spice, nutmeg, cloves, anis, coriander and cardamom too. Taste the mixture and don’t be afraid of strong flavours.

Decorating Lebkuchen

Below I use white sugar icing made of icing sugar and water, but pressing nuts (almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts) or candied fruit into the freshly cut cookies making nice patters with them is also very common.

Another version below is featuring simpe ready rolled white icing which I cut to shapes with icing cutter.

Tips for the icing

The typical ratio is approximately 1 cup of sugar (120g) to 2-3 tablespoons of water.

Mix icing sugar with water in a bowl until you get the desired thickness of the sugar paste. If you’re just dipping the cookies, a weak and watery icing will do it. If you want to  decorate the cookies with writing, make the paste thicker.

Method:

Weigh out all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add the orange zest and squeeze the juice out of two orange slices by hand. Melt the honey end the butter in a pan over low heat and pour the mixture over the dry ingredients. Start mixing by hand. If it’s too sticky for some reason add more flour. If it’s too dry and you notice big cracks when you’re kneading the dough, add some more honey and butter combo or more orange juice. Let it cool down a little. Roll it out and cut the cookies with your preferred cutter. I cut holes into them with the help of a regular plastic drinking straw, for hanging them. Preheat oven to 175C and place the cookies on the baking tray covered with baking paper. Bake them for 10 minutes and they should be ready. They burn very easily, be careful. If the cookies are thicker, you can add 3-5 minutes more to the baking time.

Christmas Lebkuchen (Honey And Ginger Cookie) Recipe

Christmas Lebkuchen (German Honey And Ginger Cookie) Recipe

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

resting time 1 hour hr

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, European, Eastern-European, german, Hungarian

Ingredients

  

• 250 g plain flour
• 100 g honey
• 80 g butter or margarine
• 100 g ground almond
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 orange zested
• 2 orange slices juiced

For the icing

• 120 g icing sugar
• 2-3 tbsp water

Instructions

 

• For the cookies:

  Weigh out all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

  Add the orange zest and squeeze the juice out of two orange slices by hand. Melt the honey end the butter in a pan over low heat and pour the mixture over the dry ingredients.

  Start mixing by hand. If it’s too sticky for some reason add more flour. If it’s too dry and you notice big cracks when you’re kneading the dough, add some more honey and butter combo or more orange juice.

  Let it cool down a little, I normally put it in the fridge for an hour.

  Roll it out and cut the cookies with your preferred cutter. I cut holes into them with the help of a regular plastic drinking straw, for hanging them.

  Preheat oven to 175C and place the cookies on the baking tray covered with baking paper. Bake them for 10 minutes and they should be ready. They burn very easily, be careful. If the cookies are thicker, you can add 3-5 minutes more to the baking time.

  For the icing:

  The typical ratio is approximately 1 cup of sugar (120g) to 2-3 tablespoons of water.

  Mix icing sugar with water in a bowl until you get the desired thickness of the sugar paste. If you’re just dipping the cookies, a weak and watery icing will do it. If you want to  decorate the cookies with writing, make the paste thicker.
  

Keyword Christmas Lebkuchen, Lebkuchen

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Enjoy them with mulled wine, punch or spicy tea. I wouldn’t pair anything with a glass of milk, but if that’s your thing then go for it!