Recipe Index

Ingredients

• 7oz runny honey
• 3oz butter
• 7oz plain flour
• 3½oz ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground allspice or mixed spice
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cloves (optional)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)
• ½ unwaxed orange, finely grated zest and juice
• pinch sea salt
• 3½oz icing sugar
• 2 tbsp boiling water
• 7oz dark, milk or white chocolate, finely chopped

Method

1. Heat the oven to 400°F and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Melt the runny honey and butter together in a small saucepan over low heat, tip the mixture into a large mixing bowl, and chill it in the fridge for 5 minutes.
3. Sieve the plain flour, ground almonds, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, cocoa powder, orange zest and juice and sea salt into the honey bowl and stir everything into a sticky dough.
4. Return the dough to the fridge for about 1 hour until it is completely cold.
5. Break off pieces of the cold dough with damp hands, roll them into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball, and set them on the trays with space to spread, flattening each ball slightly; alternatively roll the still-soft dough out to about 1 inch thick on a floured surface and cut shapes with biscuit cutters.
6. Bake the lebkuchen for 15 minutes until risen and firm to the touch, adding a few minutes more for large shapes.
7. Cool the biscuits slightly on their trays before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. For the sugar glaze, mix the icing sugar with the boiling water, dip one side of each biscuit into the glaze, and set them icing side up on the rack until the glaze sets.
9. For the chocolate glaze, melt half of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water without the bowl touching the water, take the pan off the heat just before it fully melts, stir in the remaining chocolate until smooth, and dip one side of each biscuit into the chocolate.
10. For a two-tone finish, dip one side of a biscuit in the sugar glaze and let it set before dunking the other side in the chocolate glaze and letting that set completely.

Prep: 2 h · Cook: 30 min

Nutrition (per serving, where published)

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central ingredient data