I am kicking off posting every day for the next 12 days of Christmas (not officially the 12 days but whatevs!!)
Following my German heritage i bring you gorge lebkuchen. biscuits. Lebkuchen were first baked in the 13th century by monks in Nürnberg. I know you can buy ‘em from Lidl and Aldi but homemade and none mass produced types are a different beast. They definitely are not to everyone’s palate but I have grown up with these babies and can’t get enough! Before the Teutonic police jump on me – This isn’t a traditional recipe but my take on it.
If you have dogs do not hang on the tree!!!!
60g treacle
60g golden syrup
90g unsalted butter
100g melted dark chocolate
50g clear honey
30g dark brown muscovado sugar
350g self-raising flour,
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
½ tsp ground allspice
Pinch ground cloves
1 egg,
100g white chocolate for decorating
100g milk chocolate
1. Grab a pot , melt the butter, honey, chocolate, treacle and sugar together.. leave to one side.
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients
Then add the egg and butter mixture,
Either use a wooden spoon or place in a mixer and stir until a dough is formed
Roll it in to a ball, cover and place in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 ̊C
Flour a worktop and , roll out the dough to just over 0.5cm thick.
Use a pastry cutter of your choice to cut shapes and then place on parchment sheets
Grab a cocktail stick to make a hole for hanging
Bake for 12 minutes.
Remove from oven and get the cocktail stick and repoke to make sure the hole is big enough for twine
Leave to cool for about 30 mins
pipe the dark chocolate on one side and neatly spread. Leave to set
Then grab another piping bag, melt the white choc and pipe your decorations
Leave to set.
Get some twine and thread through the hole
