History of Nürnberger Lebkuchen

Nürnberger Lebkuchen

Nürnberger Lebkuchen is just one of many types of German gingerbread popular at Christmastime. They have been baked in the city of Nürnberg since 1395 by the local monks. The spices had to be imported for all Lebkuchen, so cities with strong trading partners had an advantage over small, agricultural villages when creating new types of Lebkuchen. Nürnberg also had good honey production and this gave them an edge up in commercial production of their Lebkuchen, which began in the 14th century. In 1643, the city even created the "League of Lebkuchen Bakers".

Oblaten Lebkuchen are lebkuchen baked on individual thin wafers (one wafer to each cookie) to keep the soft cookie from sticking to the cookie sheet. However, since these wafers can be hard to get in the USA, as an alternative, line your baking sheets with parchment paper and bake the lebkuchen on top of the parchment paper.

Nürnberger Elisen Lebkuchen, considered the finest kind of Oblaten Lebkuchen, must have a minimum 25% nuts and less than 10% flour by weight. Sometimes, the recipe includes marzipan. These are soft, moist drop cookies.

Other types of Lebkuchen are made with a stiff dough which starts with a honey or sugar syrup and is rolled and baked. White Lebkuchen are decorated with almonds and candied orange or lemon peel. Lebkuchen is often referred to as Pfefferkuchen, translated as "pepper cake". It's also used in a Gingerbread House and Lebkuchen Hearts.

The next five days will contain recipes for Lebkuchen.