Swiss Honey Cake Lebkuchen Food

GERMAN LEBKUCHEN

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat the egg, brown sugar and honey until smooth. Stir in the molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and allspice; stir into the molasses mixture. Stir in the almonds and candied fruit peel. Cover or wrap dough, and chill overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut into 2x3 inch rectangles. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. While still warm, brush the cookies with the lemon glaze.
• To make the glaze: In a small bowl, stir together the egg white, lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth. Brush over cookies.

LEBKUCHEN (GERMAN HONEY BARS)

Steps:

• Honey bars:
• Heat honey and water in a large heavy saucepan until runny. Remove from heat, and stir in butter until melted. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in brown sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
• Add the flour mixture to the honey mixture and stir just until combined. Add almonds, citron, and candied orange peel. Stir until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 24 hours or up to 1 month.
• When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper so it extends over the 2 long sides.
• Firmly press the dough into the prepared pan to form a smooth, even layer. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean, about 30 minutes.
• Citrus glaze and decoration:
• In a medium bowl, beat together powdered sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla until smooth. While the lebkuchen is still warm, spread glaze evenly over the top.
• Mark into bars by cutting into the lebkuchen about ¼ inch deep with a knife. Decorate, if desired, by placing 1 candied cherry in the center of each bar. And arrange 4 blanched almonds around each cherry.
• Let stand in the pan on a rack until completely cool and the icing is set. Using the overhanging parchment as handles, transfer to a cutting board. Cut into bars. If possible, let the cookies age for at least 2 weeks to allow the spices to ripen. Lebkuchen will keep for months in an airtight container.

CHOCOLATE LEBKUCHEN

Steps:

• Combine sugar, honey and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, stir together the honey mixture with the chocolate chips, almonds, candied fruit, eggs, and orange juice. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, baking soda and baking powder; stir into the fruit and nut mixture. Tightly cover the bowl, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days to blend the flavors.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan. Spread the dough evenly into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool and frost with the orange frosting.
• To make the orange frosting, put the confectioners' sugar in a small bowl, and beat in the orange juice 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached. Spread over the cooled bars. Cut bars into diamond shapes, and place cinnamon candies on top then sprinkle with the green sugar.

LEBKUCHEN

Steps:

• Tip the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Heat the honey and butter in a pan over a low heat until the butter melts, then pour into the flour mixture along with the lemon zest. Mix well until the dough is combined and fairly solid. Cover and leave to cool.
• Heat oven to 180C/fan160C/gas 4. Using your hands, roll dough into about 30 balls, each 3cm wide, then flatten each one slightly into a disk. Divide the biscuits between two baking trays lined with baking parchment, leaving room for them to expand. Bake for 15 mins, then cool on a wire rack.
• To ice the biscuits, mix together the icing sugar, egg white and 1-2 tbsp water to form a smooth, runny icing. Dip the top of each biscuit in the icing and spread with the back of a knife. Leave to dry out in a warm room.

SWISS HONEY CAKE (LEBKUCHEN)

Steps:

• Blend honey with the coffee, cream, kirsch, sugar and spices.
• Sift the flour with the baking powder and soda; add it to the first mixture. Beat until smooth. The dough should be sticky.
• Put into a well-buttered 15x10 baking pan, spreading evenly to the corners. It should be about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
• Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Cut into bars.

LEBKUCHEN

Steps:

• Mix honey, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup water in medium saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Add 1/2 cup butter to the sugar mixture (to melt) and cool this mixture approx 30 minutes.
• While the sugar mixture cools, mix the flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, nuts, and fruit in a large mixer bowl.
• Add the cooled sugar/butter mixture to the flour mixture along with the 2 slightly beaten eggs. and mix thoroughly. I use my kitchen aid mixer with the dough attachment. The dough will be thick, and sticky.
• Place the dough in a covered plastic or glass container and let the dough "ripen" for a few days in the refrigerator.
• On baking day: Roll the dough on a slightly floured board to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut the rolled dough into 1 x 3 inch strips and place on a greased baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack, and cover with transparent glaze. Lebkuchen should ripen in cake box or plastic container at lease one day before serving.
• For the transparent glaze, mix the sugar, water, vanilla together and spread thinly on the cookies.

LEBKUCHEN (GERMAN CHRISTMAS HONEY COOKIES)

Steps:

• Mix honey and molasses and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool completely.
• Stir in brown sugar, egg, lemon juice and lemon rind.
• Sift together flour, baking soda and spices, then stir into the honey-molasses mix.
• Mix in the citron and chopped nuts, place the dough in the refrigerator and chill overnight.
• Roll out a small amount of dough at a time to 1/4 inch thick, keeping the rest in the fridge. You can either cut out oblong shapes about 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" or just cut out circle shapes about 2" in diameter.
• Place on a GREASED baking sheet about 1" apart.
• Place 3 almonds on top of each cookie in a flower shape, and place in a 400 deg oven for 10-12 min or until no imprint remains when touched lightly.
• While cookies bake, make glaze by boiling the water and sugar to 230 degrees - until it just barely begins to thread.
• Remove from heat and stir in confectioners sugar.
• Brush the hot glaze lightly over the cookies (if it gets grainy reheat slightly with a little water to thin again).

LEBKUCHEN

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, stir together the honey and molasses. Bring the mixture to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the brown sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lastly the egg.
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Add the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the citron and hazelnuts. Cover dough and chill overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Using a small amount of dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into small rectangles and place them 1 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until no imprint remains when touched lightly.
• Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (soft ball stage). Remove from heat and stir in the confectioners' sugar.
• Quickly brush the icing over the cookies while they are still hot (Important!) and remove them to wire cooling racks. If icing becomes sugary while brushing cookies, re-heat slightly- adding a little water until crystals dissolve.
• Store in an airtight container with a cup of orange or apple for a few days to mellow. (I never did understand that part of the instructions, and my friend had no clarification - but I take it to mean store with a cut-up apple or orange - maybe a small cup of juice? I don't know - I just stored the cookies in an airtight container by themselves!).

GERMAN LEBKUCHEN CAKE WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE FROSTING

Steps:

• For syrup:
• Using vegetable peeler, remove peel (orange part only) from oranges in strips. Mince enough peel to measure 4 tablespoons. Mix honey, orange juice and 2 tablespoons orange peel (reserve remaining 2 tablespoons peel for cake) in heavy medium saucepan. Boil until reduced to 3/4 cup, about 10 minutes. Set honey syrup aside.
• For cake:
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch square baking pan with 2-inch-high sides. Line bottom with waxed paper. Butter paper. Dust pan with flour. Using electric mixer, beat first 8 ingredients in large bowl until fluffy. Mix in reserved 2 tablespoons minced orange peel. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder into medium bowl. Mix half and half and lemon juice in small bowl. Beat dry ingredients alternately with half and half mixture into butter mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix in currants. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. (Cake will not rise to top of pan.) Cool cake 20 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen. Turn cake out onto rack; cool. Peel off paper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover syrup and cake separately and let stand at room temperature.)
• For frosting:
• Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Cool to barely luke warm. Using electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until light. Add chocolate and 1/4 cup honey syrup and beat until smooth and light. Chill until thick enough to spread, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.
• Cut cake horizontally in half. Place bottom layer cut side up on platter. Brush with 1/4 cup honey syrup. Spread 1 1/4 cups frosting over. Brush remaining 1/4 cup syrup over cut side of top cake layer. Place cake cut side down atop filled layer. Set aside 2/3 cup frosting for garnish. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Press almonds around sides. Spoon remaining 2/3 cup frosting into pastry bag fitted with small star tip. Pipe frosting decoratively around top edge of cake. Chill cake until frosting sets, about 1 hour. Garnish with orange slices. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Let stand 2 hours at room temperature before serving.)