[Sca-cooks] Lebkuchen

[Volker Bach]

Am Dienstag, 24. Mai 2005 11:20 schrieb Huette von Ahrens:
> Actually, it was not Lebkuchen that Selene was referring to.  It was
> Springerle cookies.
>
> Since Springerle requires being molded with either a carved stamp or rolled
> out with a carved springerle rolling pin, the dough must be very stiff in
> order to retain the molded shape. If the dough isn't stiff, then the shape
> gets lost when it bakes.  Consequently, springerle cookies are rock hard
> when they come out of the oven.  However, they do soften with age, so that
> if I were to make them now, they would be perfectly edible by the time of
> the event Selene was referring to.
>
> Lebkuchen are usually quite edible when they finish baking and don't
> require any aging to soften them.

Depends on the Lebkuchen. The period recipes I tried all came out rather soft, 
but that's because I made them like that (no quantities given in most cases 
means I can vary that considerably). However, some current varieties of 
Lebkuchen are indeed rock-hard when fresh (though the more popular Nuremberg 
variety is soft). 

Good luck, break an incisor

Giano