German Gingerbread Cookies Recipe (Lebkuchen)

Name: German Gingerbread Cookies Recipe (Lebkuchen)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 24
Cuisine: German
Ingredients: ZYN Lemon Ginger; Village Candle Citrus Zest; SIGNATURE SELECTS 100% Orange Juice, No Pulp; Turtles Egg; Value Corner Vanilla Flavor, Imitation; C&H Premium Pure Cane Light Brown Sugar; Bob's Red Mill Super-Fine Natural Almond Flour; Oregon Orchard Rosemary Hazelnuts; SIGNATURE SELECTS Baking Powder, Double Acting; Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cake and Cookie Mix; SIGNATURE SELECTS Wafer Cookies, Vanilla Creme; O Organics Sugar, Organic, Powdered; Signature Farms Lemon Juice; Talking Rain AQA Water, 9.5 pH; Toll House Semi Sweet Mini Morsels

Serves 24

30 mins prep

25 mins cook

30 mins Glaze Setting Time

85 mins total

This gingerbread cookies recipe is the number one cookie eaten in Germany at Christmas time. It's a spiced almond and hazelnut cookie that is super popular for its soft center and sugar-glazed or chocolate-covered outside.

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Grate the lemon and orange zest until you have about 1 teaspoon each. Juice the orange and reserve around 40 milliliters (2 ½ Tablespoons). Juice the lemon and reserve 2 to 4 Tablespoons for the sugar glaze (if making).

tsp lemon zest

tsp orange zest

fl oz orange juice

Beat the eggs on the highest setting of your mixer for about 1 minute.

eggs

Add the sugar, vanilla and gingerbread spice and beat for 2 more minutes.

tsp pure vanilla extract

oz brown sugar

tbsp gingerbread spice

On the lowest setting, add in the remaining ingredients. Allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, so that the wet ingredients can soak into the dry ingredients and thicken the mixture.

oz almond flour

oz ground hazelnuts

tsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 285° Fahrenheit (140° Celsius) using your non-convection setting aka conventional setting.

Onto each Oblate, place one tablespoon of Lebkuchen dough (easiest to use a cookie scoop), and distribute onto the Oblate, forming a slight mound towards the center of each cookie.

cookie wafers

Bake on parchment paper covered baking sheets for 25 minutes.

While your gingerbread is baking, prepare the glaze. Either make both or just one of them (double the recipe for either if you're just making one of them).

For the sugar glaze, combine the powdered sugar, water and lemon juice and warm in the microwave for 30 seconds.

oz powdered sugar

tbsp lemon juice

tbsp water

For the chocolate glaze, combine chocolate chips and oil and microwave in 30 second increments until melted (stir in between).

Remove your baked gingerbread from the oven and allow to cool for just a couple of minutes.

Brush on the glaze and allow to set up (this can take up to 2 hours at room temperature or about 30 minutes in the fridge or in a cold garage).