Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Ah the Holiday season. How I love it! I love the smell in the air, the music, the traditions and the FOOD! Though I have to admit this time of year does tend to make me yearn for the days when I lived in Germany. Being an Army brat I was actually born in Germany, leaving when I was about three and then returning again when I was eight. Its that second tour that I recall most as I was older of course. Christmas time in Germany is something magical that is almost impossible to describe. The snow falling in heavy, lacy flakes, the smell in the air of pine and that bite of cold. My sisters and I would go downtown where there would be all these beautiful decorations and special treats that only came out during the holidays. Candied, roasted nuts; hot mango juice; hot Gluhwein, and my personal favorite, lebkuchen.

Most of these tasty treats can easily be found in stores around here this time of year. Its one of the benefits of both being in a city bordering a major military base, and being in Texas, which few may realize, was settled by a large populace of German immigrants. These tasty morsels, my beloved lebkuchen sadly included, have a tendency to come with a hefty price tag though. So I would have to limit my purchases of my favorite Christmas treat to only two or three packages, which contained about nine cookies each. Oh the sadness indeed. That is until last year. My sisters and I made a little shopping trip to Austin for fun, like we tend to do on weekends, and there were all these magazines around with holiday desserts and baking ideas. The line was a bit long, so I snatched one up and lo and behold! There was a recipe for lebkuchen! With a rather embarrassingly loud squeal I threw the magazine into my cart and the next day I made up a batch. They were wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong, totally wrong! These were not my lebkuchen! Were they tasty, sure. But were they were definitely not my lebkuchen. They were missing that tasty bite, and they were dense, not chewy. So I started to experiment. A little shift in the flour here, a bit of changing in spices there, and an omission here...aha! I perfected it! Now I can have my favorite treats whenever I want! *Cue evil mad scientist laugh!*

And you can too! All you need is:
1 1/4 cup hazelnuts
1 cup almonds
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each: allspice, ginger and nutmeg or use 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 tablespoons orange zest
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons dutch processed cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened)
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
(for glaze)
1 3/4 confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels (for the bottoms)

 
First you need to toast the nuts, lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven.


The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of lemon zest. The zest of two lemons should do the trick.

 
A good sized orange will yield the three tablespoons of orange zest you need.

 
In a food processor, combine the nuts, sugar and spices. Process until combined and the nuts begin to resemble a fine meal.


 
Add the zest and continue to process until all the nuts are processed into a meal.



In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the cocoa, salt and flour, set aside.





In the bowl of a mixer cream together the light brown sugar and butter.

 

Add the eggs one at a time, letting each one fully incorporate before adding the next.

 
 Add the vanilla. I like to use Bourbon vanilla as it has such a nice flavor.

 
Slowly add in the flour mixture, adding it all at once will make quite a mess!
 

 
Add in the nut mixture. Be patient and scrape the sides frequently to make sure it mixes fully.
 

 
 
Here's a little tip. This is a kind of trial and error recipe. Sometimes it looks a bit too thick, or too thin. If too thick, add another egg. Too thin, 1/4 cup of flour. Its supposed to be very goopy though. Thick enough to hold a shape for a little bit, but thin enough that when left alone for five minutes it spreads out a bit.
 
Line baking sheets in parchment paper.
 


 Mound the batter onto the sheets about two inches apart. Usually I do two scoops per cookie, but I decided to make small ones this time and did one scoop with a cookie scooper.

 
Bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes and transfer to cooling wracks to cool. I usually put a new trash bag down on the table for the next part, it helps in clean up. Combine the confectioner's sugar and milk.





Dip the top of the cookie into the glaze. Let set on  cooling wracks.



Once the glaze has set, heat one cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels in 30 second intervals in the microwave until fully melted. Dip the bottoms of the cookies, or use a silicone spatula to spread the chocolate over the bottoms of the cookies. Turn them glaze side down on wracks to set.




There you have it! Your own tasty German Christmas treats made at home! These have been a popular treat for me to make. I took them to our Yule vigil last year and I think the six dozen lasted twenty minutes before they were gobbled up. That was a proud moment. But not as proud as when I picked up an authentic German cookbook and discovered my tweaked lebkuchen was nearly to the letter identical to the one in the book. Looks like I know my flavors! Happy Holidays everyone!

 
Brightest Blessings!