When I shared a picture of these dark chocolate lebkuchen on instagram a few weeks ago, you guys seemed preeeetty into them. And, for good reason. There’s not much better than something sweet dipped in dark chocolate!
That shiny chocolate was waaay too tempting. I’m not even gonna admit how many of these I managed to get through during this shoot…
I feel like these dark chocolate lebkuchen just taste exactly like Christmas. I made them back in November and immediately felt right in the holiday spirit!
They’re lightly spiced with all things festive: cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Sweetness comes from brown sugar and honey plus a hint of orange. Oh, and a good slather of dark chocolate to add a hint of richness.
Even if you’ve never heard of lebkuchen, you’ll almost definitely have tried them before. I’d ate them at German Christmas markets loads of times before I even knew what they were called.
They’re little German bakes that are somewhere between a cake and a biscuit. Soft and slightly spongey but sturdy enough not to fall apart as you stuff them in your face 😉
Traditionally they’re made with a thin wafer layer at the bottom which adds a little texture. But, at this time of year I’m all about easy bakes that I can make with ingredients I’ve got to hand.
(Although, true story, I’ve stopped holding a stock of dark chocolate for baking because I basically have zero discipline. Dark chocolate never appealed to me all that much til it was the only chocolate in the house. Who’d have thought?)
The dark chocolate coating is also totally optional but, really, why wouldn’t you?? You could coat them with a thin icing glaze instead but I find dark chocolate helps offset some of the sweetness. And I like an excuse to eat melted chocolate (shh!).
This lebkuchen recipe is super straightforward and only takes about an hour start to finish. It’d make a perfect baking project for a lazy afternoon (heh, like there’s many of those going around in December…). And, if you’ve got little’uns they can easily get involved with rolling out the dough and dipping into the chocolate.
There’s no tedious creaming or mixing going on (for someone who loves to bake, I have an irrational hatred of creaming butter and sugar together by hand!).
Melt the butter alongside honey and then mix everything together to form a dough. Roll into little balls and bake, then add a generous chocolate coating. Simple!
Ingredients
- 85g butter
- 200g runny honey
- 200g plain flour
- 100g ground almonds
- 1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100g dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 medium orange (juice of)
- 200g dark chocolate, melted
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180c. Heat the butter and honey in a pan over a medium heat until the butter has melted. Allow to cool slightly (about 5 minutes).
- In a large bowl, add all of the remaining dough ingredients. Add the butter/honey mixture and mix until combined.
- If the dough feels a bit too wet to work with, refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.
- Roll the dough into balls and place on a lined baking tray, leaving enough space for them to spread. You'll probably need to use 2 baking trays or do this in batches.
- Gently press each ball down to flatten a little. Bake for 10-12 minutes until browned but still soft.
- Remove and transfer to a cooling rack to cool. Holding each biscuit upside down, dip into the melted chocolate to coat, then return to the rack and leave chocolate to set.
Fancy getting festive in the kitchen? Check out all my Christmas recipes here!
Oh my god these look and sound delicious. Definitely need to find time to make some
Beth x
Mermaid in Disguise
Thanks Beth – they’re great and dead easy too!
Holy gorgeous! These look absolutely perfect. Would make a great gift for the holidays! Need to test them out, aka eat an entire batch myself, first though 😉
Thanks Karly! Yep, definitely need a test batch 😉
can you tell me the measurements in cups instead of grams? Sorry
Hi, I always weigh my ingredients so don’t have the measurements in cups I’m afraid. There are lots of conversion charts online though – this one is quite comprehensive: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart.html
Hope that helps!
Hi,
The recipe sounds delicious! Do you know if you can melt a regular dark chocolate bar or does it have to be a special kind of melting chocolate?
Thank you,
Christopher
Hi Christopher – any dark chocolate should work. I prefer to use something fairly high quality like Lindt 70% as I find it sets with more of a shine, but any chocolate will do the job!
Hi Kristy,
I appreciate your suggestion. Hoping to make them over the holidays.
Thank you!
Chris
You’re welcome – hope it goes well!
Thank you! I’ll let you know when I make them.
Happy Holidays:)
Chris
Hi there, just wondering how long these keep please? Do they stay fresh for over a week?
Hi Lauren, I’ve never had a batch last that long so I’m not sure but I suspect they’d dry out in that time. I’d recommend eating within a few days. If you want to make them ahead of time you can freeze the dough after rolling into balls and then defrost and bake as normal.
Ok great, thanks for the quick reply 🙂
Hello! I’m wondering similar – can you freeze them after baking do you think? Also, how big would the 24 biscuits be? Sometimes lebkuchen are a big bitesize and sometimes they’re bigger than my palm 🙂
Thanks!
Hi Becca, I’ve never tried freezing after baking but I can’t see why not. They’re probably somewhere in the middle of those two – slightly smaller than palm size (though you could of course make them bigger or smaller and adjust the baking times).
Hello. The dough is really wet. I put it in tje fridge but didnt work. Any advice please?
Sorry to hear that Nicole – if they’re still too wet after some time in the fridge I’d add just enough flour to be able to shape them.
Hello, I baked this yesterday with my 4 year old son and it came out very nice! Thank you for the great recipe!
I had to double the amount of flour in the recipe each time I made these (and add some extra spices to compensate). It’s a great recipe, but I’m wondering if 200g flour was a typo? With that amount the mixture was far too wet and impossible to work with.
Sorry to hear that – the dough is quite wet as the butter is melted and both honey & orange juice are obviously liquid. I find that refrigerating the dough after mixing helps. You could also try replacing the orange juice with zest instead
I had exactly the same issue with the dough: had to double the amount of flour after trying the fridge-thing (which didn’t work). I ended up rolling the balls with wet hands cos the dough was still too sticky. But very delicious! Especially dipped in dark chocolate so thanks for the recipe! :
I really liked your post. I read your blog quite often and I just shared it on Facebook.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Kristy,
Your Lebkuchen recipe has become one of my favorites over the past three years! This year I kid you not, I made at least 20 dozen cookies. I experimented a little by replacing egg with flaxseed (1 tablespoon ground with 3 tablespoons water) and applesauce in place of butter (42 grams of applesauce instead of 85 grams of butter).
Thank you again for sharing the recipe and your talents.
Have a merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy new year!
Take care,
Chris