In case if one likes basic Nürnberger Lebkuchen- traditional Christmas Cookies or if one wants to make a Lebkuchen house from scratch, here is my recipe. ( I just finished baking a triple batch, still have to frost them)
Nuernberger Lebkuchen
I always threefold this recipe
175 g honey
50g sugar
a tiny bit salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon rum
heat gently above ingredients to mix better, than cool down. (That is how the recipe reads. Not heating works just as well)
1 egg yolk
1 generous teaspoon cocoa
a squeeze of lemon or a bit of grated lemon peel
1 tip of spatula ground cloves
1 flat teaspoon ground cinnamon
250 g flour
3 flat level teaspoons baking powder (I always thought that is a lot, so when I triple the recipe I cut this down to about 4 teaspoons)
75 g ground Almonds (buy peeled slivered or sliced and grind in blender)
75 g ground nuts I always use shelled Hazelnuts ( as they are, grind in blender)
50 g finely diced candied Lemon
75g finely diced dried Apricots. (Apricots in this recipe are very important, don't skip them)
Mix the dough very well, then knead it. At this point you may have to adjust the texture by adding a little more flour. Then place the smooth dough into the refrigerator over night, tightly covered. Next day bring dough to room temperature. You will find that the rested dough is much easier to work with. Now take pieces of the dough and roll out to about 1/2 cm thickness. This is a bit crumbly if you did not knead enough. Use a simple cookie cutter at first and stamp out your cookies. Bake at ca. 320 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12 minutes. You need to adjust time and temp according to your oven and the thickness of your cookies.
When cool, glaze/frost with chocolate. Decorate with half-Almonds (traditional) or chocolate sprinkles or any topping of choice
Also, instead of chocolate frosting one might simply create a glaze by adding fresh reconstituted lemon juice to confectioners sugar to spreading consistency.
My old Christmas recipes are translations of my mother's writings. I wrote them in such a way that a novice ( my family one day?) can repeat them.
Here is a previous picture -
and some of today's batch