Lebkuchen. This is my mom’s recipe, and after I had prepared the dough I received a box of them for Christmas, so I froze what I’d already made and ate these instead. They are German Christmas cookies that taste like honey cakes spiced with cardamom and citron, using honey to structure the dough in much the same way that gingerbread cookies use molasses. First you scald and then cool 2 cups of honey, and whisk with 1 ½ cups of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons lemon zest. Add two eggs, then sift five cups of flour with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon each of baking soda, nutmeg, and cloves, gradually folding the mixture into the dough.
There is no good replacement for the citron candies, which are mixed into the cookies like pockets of lemon, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. They are one of those old-world ingredients that have vanished from our memories even for the holidays. One of the grocery stores I visited even had a goose you could roast for Christmas, but they didn’t have citron. Instead I used extra lemon zest, and then you need to add 1 teaspoon of cardamom pods; crushed, not ground, as you want the cardamom to stand out rather than blend in. Let the dough sit for 24 hours in the fridge, then roll it out and cut it into rounds. Bake at 400 until lightly colored, 9-10 minutes, and frost with heavy cream or skim milk mixed with confectioners sugar and lemon juice.
(Photo: Tomte, Duluth, Minnesota.)
365 Days of Food 