Lambertz Dark Chocolate Lebkuchen Hearts, Stars & Pretzels 500g

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The first stage is certainly easy. All I need to do is weigh out flour, sugar, chopped almonds and candied ginger (hopefully crystallised ginger counts as the same thing, as that’s all the supermarket had) and bung it all in a mixing bowl, along with a pinch of sea salt, a teaspoon of baking powder and some chopped dark chocolate, which I break into pieces with my fingers. I give it all a good stir before adding in three eggs and mixing into a dough. Lebkuchenherz translates as "gingerbread heart in English." "Lebkuchen" is the German word for Gingerbread. "Herz" means "Heart" in English.

To make the chocolate glaze, chop the dark chocolate and add a bit of oil (vegetable, coconut, etc). Slowly melt the chocolate in the microwave on 15-20 second intervals or in a double boiler on stove (or place a glass bowl over a saucepan that has simmering water it in). Stir frequently. The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. Oxford University Press. April 2015. p.304. ISBN 978-0-19-931361-7. O'zapft is! ("O' Zapft is" is Bavarian dialect for "Es ist angezapft" - literal meaning "it has been tapped," really meaning "party time!")

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Kuchen is easy enough, as it is simply the German word for cake. Why are gingerbread hearts sold at the Oktoberfest? The success of the icing very much depends on achieving the perfect consistency. It should not be too dense to pipe, but it needs to be firm enough to hold its shape. It is best to start piping on some baking parchment to test the consistency. Gingerbread Icing Ingridients: The etymology of Leb- in the term Lebkuchen is uncertain. Proposed derivations include: from the Latin libum (flat bread), from the Germanic word Laib (loaf), and from the Germanic word lebbe (very sweet). Another likely possibility is that it comes from the old term Leb-Honig, the rather solid crystallized honey taken from the hive, that cannot be used for much beside baking. Folk etymology often associates the name with Leben (life), Leib (body), or Leibspeise (favorite food). [6] Kuchen means 'cake'. But if you’re like me and don’t have one, and if you can’t buy some of the (many) ingredients ready-ground, this recipe is rather time-consuming!

I used the larger 70mm size but you can buy them in a smaller size if you prefer. Just be sure to adjust the amount of cookie dough added to each wafer and the bake time.

An Oktoberfest treat for young and old

Actually, Gingerbread hearts are sold at nearly every folk festival across Germany, the Oktoberfest is simply our biggest tourist attraction which has made them extra famous. Can you make Lebkuchenherzen at home? I am the first to admit that I struggled with decorating the hearts. I am not artistically inclined, but I wanted to share this traditional German recipe with you. As others may find decorating a lot easier than me, and the cake itself is delicious. I can vouch for that. What Are German Gingerbread Hearts? I started using candied zest in place of the more traditional candied mixed peel in my German Stollen Bread because I couldn’t ever find any at my local grocery stores and I don’t have the patience to make it from scratch (maybe I’ll give it another go next year). 🙂

I couldn’t find any ground hazelnuts, star anise or cloves, so I had to ‘grind’ them myself, and with only a hand-held blender to help, it took ages. And then, instead of being able to just bung everything in a processor, there was rubbing the butter into the flour, and kneading (for another age, it seemed) to get the mixture together and pliable. Note – I experimented with a cooked sugar glaze but found it much harder to work with. I recommend using non-cooked powdered sugar glaze. Almonds are the popular choice these days, having always been considered discreetly more luxurious than hazelnuts – and anyway, there’s no one left in Bavaria who harvests hazelnuts, though they also can be roasted and taste delicious, though a little stronger. They’re the kind of biscuits that most families make because they’re so easy,” says Dunk of Lebkuchenherzen. “The dough is sturdy so children can roll it out nicely and cut shapes out without worrying too much that they will break.”Lastly, you get to decorate the hearts with colourful royal icing. What ingredients are in Lebkuchenherzen? Gingerbread Hearts, much like old fashioned sweetheart candies, have writing on them, usually a sweet or humorous term of endearment, a message of love, a greeting or good wishes. The process was a bit fiddlier than your average biscuit – you have to roll out the dough, cut heart shapes, blob jam in the middle and cover with a slightly bigger heart on top. My efforts weren’t the most finessed – as shown by bits of jam pouring out after baking – but it still tasted delicious. Because Gingerbread Hearts are meant to be worn (and you can imagine the beating they take over an evening at the Oktoberfest!) or used as decoration, so they last a long time. The na_tc cookie is used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. It allows to record details on user behaviour and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.

Now food writer Anja Dunk, has collected together a whole slew of festive German bakes in her new cookbook, Advent. We grabbed some gluhwein and put three recipes to the test… Prudence Wade tested: Jam-filled Lebkuchen hearts Prudence’s attempt at jam-filled Lebkuchen hearts (left) (Prudence Wade/PA) MAKE ICING: Meanwhile, make the royal icing. Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment fitted beat the egg whites to firm peaks. With the mixer running, add the powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until it is completely used up. Add the lemon juice to loosen the mixture a little, then divide the icing between 2-3 bowls for colouring. Colour each with a few drops of food colouring until the desired colour is reached and then transfer to piping bags.

Prudence Wade tested: Jam-filled Lebkuchen hearts

teaspoon gingerbread spice (I would recommend using my homemade Lebkuchen spicemix, or shop bought) The na_sc_e cookie is used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. It allows to record details on user behaviour and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com. Actually one finds Gingerbread Hearts not only at the Oktoberfest they also are on every Christmas market in Germany. What to write onto Oktoberfest Gingerbread Heart in German / Bavarian