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Contessa Lebkuchen

I don’t know about you, but I am obsessed with Contessa Lebkuchen! These round iced gingerbreads are a favourite of mine for Christmas – and my sister looks so much forward to them all year, that she buys a stash as soon as they hit the shelves (which, these days seems to be in September already – way too early!). Anyway, I took it upon myself to develop a Contessa recipe, so that I can make these little dear Lebkuchen for her every year from now on. And boy, I have to say, I find this recipe is even better than the shop-bought version. Prepare to become addicted!

You can watch me make these here on Youtube. It’s in Luxembourgish, with English subtitles.

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This is a recipe from my book Baking with Anne.

You can find so many more wonderful Xmas baking recipes here.

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Ingredients

50g marzipan, frozen
50g candied orange peel
20g candied ginger
75g ground almonds
40g flour
75g sugar
1 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
1 1⁄2 tsp Lebkuchen spice
2 tsp cocoa powder
a good pinch of
Hirschhornsalz
2 egg whites
a pinch of salt
22 Lebkuchen wafers of 4 cm

For the icing:
40g icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
50g dark chocolate couverture

Method

Makes 22 cookies • Prep: 45 min • Fridge: 1 1⁄2 h • Oven: 15 min

Put the marzipan in the freezer for 1 hour before starting.

Finely chop the candied orange peel and ginger and put in a mixing bowl. Add the ground almonds, flour, sugar, cinnamon, Lebkuchen spice and cocoa powder with a pinch of salt and mix.

Grate the frozen marzipan into the bowl and mix between grating, so that the marzipan doesn’t make clumps. Mix the Hirschhornsalz with 1 tsp water and add to the bowl with the egg whites. Mix into a dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 170°C fan.

Put the Lebkuchen wafers onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Dip your fingers into a bowl with water, then break off a bit of dough and roll a little walnut-sized ball with the wet hands. Place the ball onto one Lebkuchen wafer and flatten it with wet fingers, so it covers the entire wafer. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Bake the Lebkuchen for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.

Put the baked cookies on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Mix the icing sugar with the milk and brush each little Lebkuchen with icing. Leave to set for a couple of hours. Once set, melt the chocolate couverture in a bain marie and brush the bottom of each Lebkuchen with chocolate, then leave them to dry upside down. Transfer into a tin and wait for 24 hours for the Lebkuchen to soften.