Roopa
Lebkuchen is a type of Christmas cookie. While they are commonly translated as being gingerbread, this is a misconception as they do not actually contain ginger! The Elisen lebkuchen originated in Nuremberg around 1500, and must contain at least 25% nuts.
INGREDIENTS
- 60 g marzipan
- 15 g egg white
- 75 g granulated sugar
- 75 g egg white
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 75 g hazelnut powder
- 75 g almond powder
- 45 g cake flour
- 3.5 g baking soda
- 12 g cinnamon
- 4 g cloves
- 2 g mace/nutmeg
- 1 g nutmeg
- 1 g cardamom
- 30 g lemon peel cubes
- 30 g candied orange peel
- Back Oblaten wafers
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Combine marzipan and egg whites with a wood spoon until there are no lumps
- Chop up the candied fruits
- Mix together all of the dry ingredients
- Make the meringue. Get the egg whites quite stiff before adding the sugar. It is a very heavy meringue, so it is nearly impossible to actually get stiff
- Add 1/3 of the meringue to the marzipan and mix well. Fold in the remainder of the meringue
- Fold in the dry ingredients and fruits
- Pipe onto Back Oblaten wafers leaving space at the edges for the cookies to expand
- Wet a napkin and smooth out each cookie into a dome shape
- Decorate each cookie with halved almonds and candied ginger (as shown below)
- Bake cookies (soft bake)
- Glaze cookies with fondant when cooled
Notes:
- In a meringue more egg white: sugar means a very light meringue, and 1:1 means very heavy
- Marzipan has a very long shelf life. It’s very important to get high quality marzipan (the more almond the better). Most marzipan has “maybe been carried through an almond plantation once.”
- Back Oblaten wafers are a thin white wafer that hold the weight of the cookie. This recipe is too soft and will not hold together without a base.
