When your goal is to make 2,000 christmas cookies, you need to try some new recipes. These are traditional German cookies that, according to Wikipedia, Nuremberg is famous for (not the first thing I think of when I hear the word Nuremberg) Having German ancestors but absolutely no old world traditions in my family, I envisioned all of us gathered around on Christmas, eating lebkuchen while telling stories about the old country. This is a total fantasy since none of us know any stories about the old country, let alone how to pronounce lebkuchen. At least we have cookies.
lebkuchen
ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 c. sliced almonds
- 2 c. unbleached flour
- 1 & 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 & 1/2 ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cloves
- 1 tsp. allspice
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 & 1/2 c. light brown sugar
- 1/2 c. orange marmalade
- 1/4 c. candied ginger, chopped
- 1/4 c. unsulfured molasses
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature
For icing:
- 3 c. + 2 tbl. confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 c. whole milk
- 3 tbl. unsalted butter, at room temperature
Begin by toasting the almonds. Turn oven to 350°. Spread out almonds on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice and salt into a bowl. Set aside. When nuts are cool, place in a food processor and pulse until chopped. Add brown sugar and pulse to incorporate. Add molasses, ginger and marmalade. Pulse until well combined. Add eggs and pulse, then add the flour mixture and pulse until batter is well combined. Put dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze for at least 4 hours.
When ready to bake, put oven racks in top and bottom third of oven. Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a tablespoon to place small scoops of dough(the dough will be very sticky) on the sheets, spacing 3″ apart. Return remaining dough to the freezer until ready to use. Bake two sheets at a time, rotating sheets to opposite racks halfway through. Bake 14-16 minutes, until edges just start to turn brown. Remove from oven to wire racks, allowing cookies to cool completely on sheets on rack.
To make the icing, whisk sugar, milk and butter in an electric mixer until thick. Use a teaspoon or offset spatula to spread a layer of icing on the top of each cookie. Let dry completely.
2 batches, 147 made, 38 to go.