A German Traditional Christmas Treat: Nürnberger Elisen Lebkuchen
You think Christmas treats are only good for Christmas? Think again: they are good all winter. The best German Christmas cookies are the simplest. They are loaded with nuts and that gives them an amazing texture. The best is the rum glaze ! Not just sweet and beautiful but also delicious and perfectly paired with…
You think Christmas treats are only good for Christmas? Think again: they are good all winter. The best German Christmas cookies are the simplest. They are loaded with nuts and that gives them an amazing texture. The best is the rum glaze ! Not just sweet and beautiful but also delicious and perfectly paired with the cookie!
Hazelnuts all around !
My favorite thing about German recipes generally are the hazelnuts, and don’t I wish I could find more hazelnuts Christmas ( and non Christmas ) options on this side of the Atlantic!
This is NOT my recipe and I do not use my steam cooker to make it. This is my favorite nutty German Christmas cookie recipe. I translated this post from a German blog with authorization from the author, Elena !
Danke Elena, from La Crema Patisserie in Berlin that you accepted to share your wonderful recipe with a wider audience ! Bon appetit !
This cookie is incredibly easy to make, although it may take a few extra steps.
What nuts Do I Need For My German Elisenlebkuchen ?
As I mentioned above, you will need hazelnuts and almonds. All the almond and hazelnuts meals, pieces and slivers will give your cookie consistency: softness and crunch, the ideal cookie in my world. Here is the list of what you will need.
Almonds in Every Shapes and Sizes
Buy almond flour or meal (2-3 lbs), slivered almonds (1 pack) and whole raw almonds (2 packs of 1 lbs)
You Will Need Whole Raw or Roasted Hazelnuts.
Personally, I prefer roasting nuts myself, because I don’t roast them as long as the one sold in the store are; and I prefer it not to burn too much. That is a taste preference. But raw hazelnuts are not necessarily easy to find, although in this season you can find them online (nuts.com, foodtolive.com, amazon of course) or at Trader Joe’s if you have one in your area.
How do I use them ? The hazelnuts will serve whole and as a meal. I recommend you only buy whole ones, because you will need to blend some into a meal, and cut some with a large knife.
Easy DYI Hazelnut Meal
To blend hazelnuts, use a good coffee and nuts grinder like this one. I have been owning it for a year now and am very happy with it! It will serve to blend herbs and spices as well. One tip: for this recipe, it’s ok if there are a few bits and pieces. Don’t over blend or you’ll end up with hazelnut butter! if you want a thorough job, get the pieces out and blend them separately.
You can use the blender with almonds too, but it’s so much easier and cheaper to find almond meals or blanched almond flour!
Easy DIY Lebkuchen spice mix
The next special thing you will need to make these is a specific Christmas spice blend. I made a post about Christmas spice blends from different countries. For this one pick the German Lebkuchen Christmas Spice Mix ( which is in the middle of the blog post).
Easy Recipe
These cookies are easy to make, and so flavorful! Perhaps a bit time consuming on account of blending nuts, but this goes quite fast in the end. If you already have everything blended ( I usually own almond meal) it won’t take much time. And by the time the cookies are cooked you’ll have the dishes clean already !
I brought these to family and friends, including some German gourmets, and they got the approval from everyone. Best, they are naturally gluten free, so unless people around have nut allergies, these are very inclusive!
Of course I have to warn about alcohol content on the glaze, but it is a small quantity, and only optional. For kids you can add milk and vanilla to the glaze instead.
German Christmas Nürnberger Lebkuchen
You think Christmas treats are only good for Christmas? Think again: they are good all winter. Why? The spice mix they contain is a mood booster for sure! And if they are not altogether too sweet, you won't feel as bad. The best German Christmas cookies are the simplest. They are loaded with nuts and that gives them an amazing texture. The best is the rum glaze ! Not just sweet and beautiful but also delicious and perfectly paired with the cookie!
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 6 large eggs
- 180 g brown sugar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 250 g hazelnut meal or blended hazelnuts
- 250 g almond meal or flour
- 100 g hazelnuts, cut into large pieces with a large knife
- 100 g almonds, cut into large pieces with a large knife
- 100 g slivered almonds
- 2 tsp of Lebkuchen spice mix
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 pinch of salt
For the glaze:
- 200g confectioner's sugar
- 5 or 6 tablespoons (spiced !) rum or 1 tsp vanilla flavor and 5 tbsp almond milk )
- A handful of whole almonds, peeled
Instructions
- Prepare the nuts: Take 250 grams of hazelnuts and blend them in the spice grinder; set aside in a bowl.
- Take 100g of hazelnuts and cut them in pieces with a large chef knife. Set aside in a bowl.
- Do the same with 100g of almonds.
- Take a handful of almonds in a bowl. Boil some water and pour onto the almonds to cover them with water.
- Turn on the oven to 350°F / 175 °C.
- Take a pan and turn on the stove on low. Heat up the cut and slivered almonds and the cut hazelnuts a roast them a for a few minutes until they turn gold brown. Put aside.
- Crack the eggs in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the brown sugar. Mix together at medium high speed until the mix is thick and creamy.
- Add up the spice mix and cinnamon, as well as the nut meals.
- Add up the cut and roasted nuts and mix.
- Take the bowl containing the almonds in water. Peel the almonds by pressing the fingers against the almond: it goes right off!
- Roll out enough unbleached parchment paper to cover a cooking tray. Spread the dough across the paper.
- With a knife, trace the location where you will cut the cookie once it is cooked. Add the peeled almond ( it does not matter if they are whole or half) as a V shape on each little diamond drawn with the knife and push down a but to anchor in the cookie.
- Put the cookie in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
- Take out of the oven, let it cool down.
- Take a bowl and add confectioner sugar and mix with rum. The mixture should be rather liquid. Take a cooking brush and generously cover the whole cookie with glaze. Finally but the cookie.
- transfer into a closed box and keep a few weeks... If you can !
Bon appétit, or as they say in Germany, Guten Appetit!
Notes
I make this recipe with hazenuts that have not been blanched and that works fine! If you want them blanched, you can blanch them by soaking in hot water 10 min and peeling them with your fingers, like i do with Almonds. But do it the day before so they are dry enough to blend !
Nutrition Information
Yield
64Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 126Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 17mgSodium 22mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 2gSugar 7gProtein 3g
This is a computer generated approximate measurement. Don't only consider the calories but also the quality of the ingredients!
