Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen is a traditional German baked Christmas treat, which resembles gingerbread.

They range in taste from spicy to sweet and come in a variety of shapes, although round is the most common. Ingredients usually include spices, nuts including almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts, or honey.

Originally created by monks, Lebkuchen dough is traditionally placed on a thin wafer base called Oblate. This was an idea of the monks, who used unleavened communion wafer ingredients to prevent the dough from sticking.

Typically, they are glazed with sugar mixed with egg white or lemon juice, or covered with very dark chocolate, but they can be left plain. I had planned to glaze these with sugar, but when I tasted one on its own, it was so sweet that adding more sugar would have made it sickeningly so. Hence the hats of dark chocolate. If you want to go all out, you could submerge them completely in chocolate.

Lebkuchen is usually soft, but a harder type of Lebkuchen is used to produce Lebkuchen Hearts, usually inscribed with icing, which are available at many German fairs, and the witch houses made popular because of the fairy tales about Hansel and Gretel. The closest German equivalent of the gingerbread man is the Honigkuchenpferd (honey cake horse).

Lebkuchen is sometimes packaged in richly decorated tins, chests, and boxes which have become nostalgic collector items. I went for an old baking tin and some ivy from the garden. And, of course, a plastic deer or two.

At this time of year, Lebkuchen are a staple in my house. In years past it has been those little heart-shaped chocolate-covered ones with a blob of apricot jam in the middle. These gluten-free ones are a great substitute.