Nürnberger Lebkuchen
by Lady Scholastica Joycors - The Culinary Bard
HONEY CAKES (Honigkuchen) the forerunner of Lebkuchen can be traced back to the Egyptians in 1500 B.C. but it was some 13th Century medieval monastaries from Franconia, Germany that really got things rolling, so to speak. Over time, Lebkuchen grew popular within the region and had become staple bakery goods in Ulm and Nürnberg as early as 1296 and 1395 respectively. A baked desert that no German home is without at Christmas. There are several varieties but they use sugar, honey and are warming spices like cinnamon, cloves, anise, cardamom, coriander, ginger, nutmeg, and sometimes also allspice and mace. The texture ranges from soft and cake like to hard. Some cookies use flour and others use mostly ground almond or hazelnut flour along with assorted candied fruit peels and dried fruits but his variety came much later.
Honey hunters gathered honey from wild bee colonies in the large forest that surrounds Nüremberg. In earlier times, the Nuremberg forest was also called “The bee garden of the Holy Roman Empire”. Nüremberg was also one of the two largest trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe in medieval times. So there was no shortage of imported cane sugar and spices.
Lore indicates that the cookie became widespread when in 1487, Emperor Friedrich III presented the city’s 4000 children with cookies bearing the printed image of his portrait. There are actually some cookie molds still around that show that famous image, as well as some other kings and dignitaries from the 17th and 18th century that still exist. Not all lebkuchen are done in molds some are cut into simple shapes like a rectangles, stars, or circle and decorated with only almonds, one of the most famous designs is that of a heart which is highly decorated, and there are many molds that are used depending on the occasion.
The original variety of lebkuchen was hard as a rock or what we might call hardtack which meant it kept well and was usually kept in a metal tin for storage. If you wanted to soften these cookies you might put a slice of apple or take them out and dunk them in your ale, coffee, or milk. It was made with a lot of flour, had not nuts, fat, egg or leavening agent.
Many old recipes often say to let the dough rest for weeks in one document it said to make the dough in November and bake it in December, which could explain it being known as a Christmas cookie. The high amount of honey and the spices in the dough prevents spoilage or mold growth. Guess you could look at this as early sourdough but without the tang.
Lebkuchen has made many changes over the year including adding cocoa, candied fruit peels, nuts, as adding fillings. One thing that has not changed is that the smell of gingerbread brings memories of the holidays.
Niernberger Lezeltlach – Nüremberg Lebkuchen
1 Maß honey
1 1/2 Pfund sugar
1 Vierling flour
3 Lot nutmeg
1 Lot cinnamon
1 1/2 Lot cloves
1 Quintel mace
6 Lot ginger
rosewater
The recipe was published in The Cookbook Of Sabina Welserin: Recipe 163 – Niernberger Lezeltlach zu machen (in medieval German, 1553)
Original Nürnberger Lebkuchen (Redaction by Lina)
1.5 lb. (700g or approx 2 cups) honey – honeydew, heath or wildflower honey
0.5 lb. (240g or 1 1/4 cups) muscovado sugar or brown sugar
2.1 lbs. (930g or 7 1/2 cups) wheat flour – I used sifted home milled wheat grains
4 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp cardamom
two pinches of pepper
two pinches of nutmeg
optional: blanched almond halves
optional: rosewater
Coarsely crush the spices using a mortar and pestle. Combine flour and coarsely ground spices in a large bowl.
Combine honey and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil. Pour the hot honey over the flour-spice-mixture. Knead everything together. Or it works just as well, to just stir everything together with a large spoon. Now let the dough rest for about 30 minutes or 1 hour.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2"(1cm). Cut out rectangles with a knife. Transfer the medieval gingerbread to lined baking sheets. If you want, you can decorate the Lebkuchen with blanched almond halves.
Let the Lebkuchen rest overnight at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Optional: Brush the top of the gingerbread with rosewater.
Bake the lebkuchen for 20 minutes. Put the Nürnberger Lebkuchen into cookie tins immediately after you remove them from the oven while still hot.
Bibliography
Medieval Gingerbread - Nurnberger Lekuchen, 17 December 2017, http://www.sewhistorically.com/medieval-nurnberger-lebkuchen-recipe/
Easy German Lebkuchen recipe. Cate. https://www.internationaldessertsblog.com/easy-german-lebkuchen-recipe-nurnberger-elisenlebkuchen-cookies/
'A Brief History of Lebkuchen, Germany's Heart-Shaped Gingerbread Cookie. Cichanowicz Lily. 2016 November 2016. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/germany/articles/a-brief-history-of-lebkuchen-germanys-heart-shaped-ginger-
©2021 MyLinda Butterworth (scholastica.ppa@gmail.com) This article first appeared in The Yeoman - December 2021.
Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited and receives a copy.
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