[Sca-cooks] Re: Lebkuchen was EK Coronation feast analysis

[Martha Carey Oser]

Shy hello from a newbie, though I've been lurking on the list for a little 
while... 

Here is the recipe for Lebkuchen that my mother has always uses at 
Christmas.  This is not quite the same as the Lebkuchen that she gets from 
our German relatives every year, which is a round disk-shaped, cake-like 
cookie about 4 inches across.  It has a large communion wafer on the bottom 
and is covered with a glaze on top.  Our version is made as a bar cookie, 
minus the communion wafers. 

Hope this helps. 

 -Martha 

Lebkuchen (Honey Spice Christmas Bars) 

3/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 c honey
1T lemon zest
1t lemon juice
2 and 3/4 c flour
1/2 t each baking soda and salt
1 t each ground nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves
1 and 1/2 c golden raisins
1/4 lb each candied orange peel and candied lemon peel, gound
1 c finely chopped walnuts
1 c ground almonds (this varies - this year, because we had it on hand, we 
used about 3/4 c almond paste instead) 

Heat oven to 350.  Line a 10x15 inch pan with foil and grease.  Beat sugar 
and egg until fluffy.  Add honey, lemon zest and juice; beat well.  Combine 
dry ingredients and gradually add to egg mixture, beating on low speed.  
Stir in fruits and nuts. (Warning: this dough gets VERY heavy.  Your hand 
mixer will not handle it and it's probably repeated making of this recipe 
that killed my mother's KitchenAid.  You may want to mix in the last of the 
dry ingredients, fruits and nuts by hand) 

Spoon batter evenly into pan.  Press into pan with moistened fingers to make 
an even layer.  Bake 15-20 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool on rack 
about 15 minutes.  Turn out of pan onto another rack and peel off foil.  
Cool about another 15 minutes.  Brush top and sides with lemon glaze; let 
set and cut to desired size (usually we cut them 1x1.25 inches) 

Lemon Glaze: Combine about 1 and 1/2 c powdered sugar, 2 to 2 and 1/2 T 
lemon juice and 1-2T melted butter or margarine.  Glaze should be fairly 
thick - not runny.  When glazing, cookies should still be warm enough that 
the glaze melts slightly and spread easily, but not so hot that the glaze 
melts completely and soaks into the cookie.
nickiandme at att.net writes: 

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