These vegan lebkuchen are a very easy and gift-worthy interpretation of the traditional German gingerbread cookies, full of the flavours of Christmas. (It’s never too early…)
They are made with a higher ratio of ground almonds to flour – which is less traditional but makes an excellent cake-like cookie with a soft, light centre and a firmer outer shell.
They are intensely flavoured with spice, orange zest, and just a hint of cocoa.
The combination of spices is a matter of personal preference, of course. The mixture here is good if you like cloves (or are obsessed with their health-giving properties – according to the nutritionfacts.org website, a pinch might double someone’s daily dose of antioxidants). Adding star anise makes a subtle but special difference.
I opted for a simple approach to decorating the pictured lebkuchen, using a water icing glaze. You can also use plain or orange flavoured dark chocolate, both of which work beautifully with the spice mixture.
Traditional lebkuchen are made with honey, but the syrup is not a dominant flavour and maple syrup is perfect.
This recipe will make at least thirty lebkuchen, that will store well in a tin.
For a completely different (and complementary) Christmas cookie, you could try these little snowball cookies:
vegan lebkuchen…
Ingredients
- 150 g ground almonds
- 70 g brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground flaxseed
- 70 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground star anise
- zest of half an orange, and 4 tbsp juice
- 40 g coconut oil
- 80 g maple syrup
for decorating
- icing sugar
- orange zest (optional)
- dark chocolate (orange-flavoured works well)
Method
- Line a baking sheet or sheets (enough for thirty x 4 cm lebkuchen) with baking parchment or greaseproof paper. (You can turn the oven on later while the mixture is cooling.)
- Place the almonds, flaxseed and sugar in a bowl.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa, and spices into the almond mixture, and whisk to ensure everything is evenly distributed.
- Melt the coconut oil in the microwave before whisking in the maple syrup and 4 tbsp of orange juice. (If the coconut oil starts to set give the mixture a few seconds in the microwave.)
- Sprinkle the orange zest over the dry ingredients and then pour on the liquid mixture, stirring as you go, to form a sticky dough.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for an hour or so (you can leave it overnight if you prefer), to make it easier to roll into balls.
- While the dough is chilling, heat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
- Roll the dough into thirty or so balls roughly 3 cm across and place these on the tray. Don’t bother to flatten them, but do try to roll them until the surface is smooth as little cracks will expand when they bake and make it harder to achieve a smooth iced finish.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until they are just starting to darken at the edges. They will expand a little and form dome shaped cookies roughly 4 cm across.
- Allow the lebkuchen to cool before decorating. If coating in chocolate, simply melt the chocolate (150 g should do an entire batch of thirty cookies). For the water glaze, add water one teaspoon at a time, to around 150 g of icing sugar, until you have a runny glaze that is still thick enough to form a semi-opaque layer on the cookies. You can add a teaspoon of orange zest for extra flavour. I use a teaspoon to apply both the chocolate and glaze – a suitable brush might be less messy!
- Leave the chocolate and/or glaze to set completely.
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