Christmas

Lebkuchen

by:
December 16, 2017
5
1 Ratings
  • Makes 50
Author Notes

The recipe for the spice blend can be found here: https://food52.com/recipes...
The two leavening agents Pottasche and Hirschhornsalz can be found online or a well sorted German grocery store around Christmas). —Vera Kern

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 100 grams egg whites
  • 60 grams sugar (can be reduced by half)
  • 85 grams almond flour
  • 85 grams hazelnut flour
  • 100 grams candid citrus
  • 25 grams honey
  • 6 grams Lebkuchen spice blend (see note)
  • 1.5 grams potassium carbonate (food grade, in German it's called Pottasche)
  • 1.5 salts of hartshorn/Ammonium Carbonate (in German Hirschhornsalz)
  • 2 teaspoons milk
  • 50 thin wafers/oblaten
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 205C/400F.
  2. Dissolve the Pottasche and the Hirschhornsalz in 1 teaspoon milk in seperate small bowls. These two should not be mixed together before they go into the dough.
  3. Chop the candied citrus finely or run it through a blender.
  4. Mix all the ingredients but the Pottasche and the Hirschhornsalt and the wafers into a smooth dough.
  5. Add the Pottasche and knead for 1 - 2 minutes.
  6. Add the Hirschhornsalt and knead for 1 - 2 minutes.
  7. Spread the wafers out on a parchment lined baking tray.
  8. Wet your hands, take about one tablespoon of dough, roll into a ball, set it on a wafer and spread it out so it covers the whole wafer and has the shape of a low dome.
  9. Once you have used up all the dough (or as much as you can fit on one baking tray), bake for about 14-17 minutes.
  10. When they have cooled down you can glaze them with chocolate or a sugar glaze.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

1 Review

Arcadae December 16, 2022
This makes a pretty solid lebkuchen. I did not have access to Hirschhornsalt, so I substituted 1.5 grams of equal parts baking powder and baking soda. The dough was really sticky, but I was able to get exactly 18 cookies on 2.75in communion wafers. 400F seemed a bit hot, but they were just starting to burn at the 14 minute mark. Just keep an eye on them.