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 LAYB-kue-chn - and sometimes called Pfefferkuchen is a German baked Christmas treat somewhat resembling 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!

There are different varieties of Lebkuchen, Oblaten Lebkuchen and Elisen Lebkuchen, which are made with different amounts of nuts but the main ingredients are always a mixture of nuts, candied orange and lemon peel, eggs, sugar or honey, and sometimes marzipan.

Oblaten Lebkuchen are distinguished by a signature edible wafer (collectively called Oblaten in German) on the bottom. The wafers are made from wheat flour, starch, and water.

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.

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" (gingerbread) is also known as "Honigkuchen" (honeycake) in some parts of Germany.

Back-oblaten, or baking wafers, are round wafers often used as the base of each lebkuchen. They're traditional, but not necessary. It is critical that the nuts be ground into a flour, as that is their function in this recipe.

Frau Perchta isn't as well known as Krampus these days, which is a shame, because this Christmas-time goddess/witch/all-around-terrifying-gal deserves a lot more press. She's a staple in the Alpine regions of southern Germany and Austria, but relatively under-the-radar in North America.

What is a German Christmas delicacy? ›

Treat guests to a traditional German Christmas dinner with classic dishes like roasted goose legs, braised red cabbage. and dumplings, and don't forget the mulled wine and platter of gorgeous, festive cookies.

Those who like marzipan will love our Marzipan Mini-Elisen. Order a few packs to try or to give away to marzipan fans in your circle of friends!

noun. leb·​ku·​chen. ˈlāpˌküḵən. plural lebkuchen. : a Christmas cookie usually made with honey, brown sugar, almonds, candied fruit peel, and spices.

We believe Leckerlee lebkuchen is hands-down the highest-quality lebkuchen you can buy in the States, and we stand by our product with a 100% money-back guarantee.

“German wines are perfect to pair with food, so there are also some wines you can drink with Lebkuchen or Marzipan. I would recommend a Gewürztraminer which has a very spicy flavour and goes well with the Lebkuchen. Also a red wine like a Dornfelder or a Pinot would fit perfectly.

There are a few different kinds of lebkuchen, but the most well known outside of Germany are similar to gingerbread, but with a soft, chewy, cakey texture and a different spice profile.

Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as a ginger snap.

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.