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Lebkuchen

These classic German gingerbread biscuits are super easy to make and delicious, great for sharing or giving as gifts at Christmas.

Ingredients: for around 30 lebkuchen
250g plain flour
100g ground almonds
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
>big pinch of ground cloves
100g light brown muscovado sugar
100ml clear honey
100ml golden syrup
85g butter
1 lemon, finely grated zest
royal icing sugar and lemon juice for the icing

  1. Place the flour, ground almonds, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, cloves and sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir together.
  2. Place the honey, golden syrup and butter in a saucepan and set it over a medium heat and stir until the butter melts.
  3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and use a wooden spoon to mix everything together until it forms a ball of dough.  Cover the bowl with cling film and leave the dough to cool for 15-20 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180oc/gas 4.
  5. Grease and line two baking trays, divide the dough into 30 pieces and roll each piece into a ball, place on the lined baking tray, flatten slightly.  Leave a gap between them, as they will spread a little as they cook.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, AGA Roasting oven shelf on oven floor and plain cold shelf on the second set of runners for 8-10 minutes.  They should be golden brown and still soft when they come out, leave them on the baking tray to cool and as they cool they will firm up but still remain soft in the middle.
  6. Mix the royal icing sugar with lemon juice to a runny consistency and drizzle over the lebkuchen once they are cool, leave overnight to set hard then eat or box up to give as gifts.

Lebkuchen