Nov 14, 2012

Lebkuchen (Chocolate-Glazed Almond Spice Cookies)

The recipe for these Christmas cookies come from the bakery Rischart in Munich. This recipe first appeared in our December 2012 issue along with Todd Coleman's story Bavarian Dream.

Credit: Todd Coleman

MAKES 8-10 COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

1½ cups sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
10 oz. mixed candied citrus peel, finely chopped
8 oz. finely ground almonds
1 tbs. milk
½ cup flour
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. ground cardamom
½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp. kosher salt
14 (3½") oblaten wafers (available at Bavaria Sausage Inc.)
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Whisk together 1 cup sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a bowl; using a hand mixer, beat mixture until thickened. Stir in candied peel, almonds, milk, flour, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, and salt. Place a heaping ¼ cup of batter on an oblaten wafer; spread batter to edges, leaving it mounded in center. Repeat with remaining wafers; transfer to parchment paper�lined baking sheets, spaced 1" apart. Let sit until slightly dried, about 1 hour.

2. Heat oven to 275°. Bake lebkuchen until a toothpick inserted in the middle of each comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, heat remaining sugar, corn syrup, and ¼ cup water in a 1-qt. saucepan over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Pour over chocolate; let sit 1 minute. Stir until glaze is shiny. Brush lebkuchen with glaze; let cool to set glaze.

NOTE: This recipe has been modified from the version that ran in the print edition of SAVEUR. We have decreased the quantity of milk to 1 tbs., and increased the quantity of flour to ½ cup. We've also adjusted the yield from 1 dozen down to 8-10 cookies.

This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #152

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Ratings & Reviews (6)

by LLASSER on 2012-12-02

This is the second time i've been burned by one of these ill-fated, clearly untested, restaurant baking recipe adaptations. I thought perhaps the disastrous Schwarzwalder kirschtorte recipe from a few months back was a fluke, but I now am convinced Saveur's test kitchen is totally asleep on the job.

The batter turned out incredibly runny - far too runny to spread onto the oblaten disks as directed. To counter the 3 eggs and 1/4 c milk, I ended up needing 12 oz ground almonds and well over a cup of flour - vs the TABLESPOON OF FLOUR called for by the recipe. The cookies came out pale and rather drab in flavor. Not inedible, but totally not worth the time and trouble (esp if you candy your own citrus and have to hunt down the oblaten disks). There is another lebkuchen recipe on this site that looks much more likely to yield success. Note the amount of flour and the use of butter in that recipe compared to this one - wow.

Saveur, you need to get it together or i am going to cancel my subscription. I don't have the time to waste on recipes that don't work.

by MCO FOODIE on 2012-12-14

Failure three, and this was the worst disappointment of the whole article. I was so looking forward to making these, but they absolutely filed. The batter was so runny, there was no hope of it staying on the oblaten. I added more flour just like the other rater to firm it up. Then they baked up completely flat, too dense, and pretty much inedible.

Saveur, LLASSER seems to be giving you another chance, but I am done with you after today's failures. I spent good money on the ingredient for your christmas cookie spread, even candied my own citrus, and was completely let down. It is clear no one at your publication checked these recipes with the amount of failures being reported.

by L-JHOLMES@COMCAST.NET on 2012-12-15

There is absolutely an error in this recipe. Authentic Lebkuchen includes many cups of flour, depending on the quantity you're making - not tablespoons. I scoured the internet and most also call for butter. I too have been burned too many times by Saveur cookie recipe failures. I didn't bake the batter yet, so am going to try to fix it. Also, this is a type of gingerbread cookie - where is the ginger???? FAILED AGAIN!

by DRMAXNY on 2012-12-16

This was my first time using Christmas cookie recipes from your magazine. Fortunately after my first recipe in this article failed completely, I read the reviews of the other recipes and was able to save my Christmas party by not using them. There is no possible way that these recipes were ever tested. We spent lot of time, effort and money getting the special oblaten wafers required for the recipe.

How can a major food publication publish recipes that are completely wrong? It's not that they could've been better, It's that they cannot be made the way the recipe is written, Period. You have a major problem. Fix it.

by JEFFWILKIN on 2012-12-17

My god this was frustrating. The batter was running everywhere. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS RECIPE AS WRITTEN. Something is hopelessly wrong with it. It will ruin your excitement for baking. Saveur needs to urgently repair this recipe, along with the other cookie recipes in this article, or suffer a serious blow to its reputation. I subscribe to the magazine because the recipes are so reliably good-- but this article, with every cookie recipe a joke, gives me serious pause. The magazine needs to own up to this failure, explain it, and remedy it with all speed....

by LLASSER on 2012-12-22

I made these again with the REVISED recipe (thanks - sort of) and offer the following tips: -plan on piping this batter onto the oblaten on sheet with pastry bag and large tip (ateco 806 $7 on amazon). i had my hubbie hold the oblaten while i piped, then wet my fingers and smoothed to make the mounded shape. Batter is way too sticky to heap! - consider adding .5 tsp baking powder to mitigate density - DON'T ADD THE MILK until you are absolutely sure you will need it to pipe the cookies. Consider strong coffee in lieu of milk. -Use packaged almond meal and measure by weight, not volume. - for candied fruit, consider half candied ginger, half lemon and orange or tangerine - nothing is gained by letting these sit prior to baking - cut sugar to 3/4 c. NOTE, this recipe should say "1.5 cups, DiVIDED" since .5 c is for the glaze. - wait til these have cooled before making the glaze or it will be too thick to spread. save your baking sheet with the parchment and put the cookies on a rack over it to glaze - note that recipes that use butter and lots of flour don't use the oblaten, those are a different animal - store in sealed tupperware; these seem to improve with a little time - replace half the cinnamon with allspice, or use packaged lebkuchen spice. some recipes add a bit of cocoa. - ERR on undercooked side - ignore toothpick, watch for browning around edges and remove promptly

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