Brown butter & cardamom lebkuchen
Makes around 35-40
More effort
Prep:
Cook:
plus 1 hr chilling and 1 hr setting
Make a twist on the classic lebkuchen over Christmas. Spiced with fragrant cardamom, brown butter gives these chewy cookies a nutty edge
Skip to ingredients
Units:
- 100g salted butter
- 150g light brown soft sugar
- 200ml honey
- 350g plain flourplus extra for dusting
- 100g ground almonds
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- pinch of ground mace
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 egg
- 1 lemonzested
For the icing
- 200g icing sugarsifted
- 1 egg white
Nutrition: Per serving (40)
- kcal126
- fat4g
- saturates2g
- carbs21g
- sugars14g
- fibre0.5g
- protein2g
- salt0.2g
Method
step 1
Tip the butter into a saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted, cook until the butter foams, stirring regularly. It should start to smell nutty and the milk solids at the bottom will turn golden brown in around 7 mins. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and honey. Return to the heat on low. Cook for 3-5 mins until the sugar has melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
step 2
Combine the flour, ground almonds, spices, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarb together in a bowl. Whisk the egg into the cooled butter mixture then pour into the dry ingredients and add the lemon zest. Mix well and bring into a ball. Set aside in the fridge for 1 hr to firm up.
step 3
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and line two large baking trays with baking parchment. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Tip out the dough and roll out to around 1cm thick. Use cutters shaped like hearts, gingerbread people and stars of varying sizes, around 5-8cm, to stamp out the lebkuchen. If you want to hang them, use a skewer to poke a little hole in the top. Arrange on the baking tray, with a little space in between. Bake for 13-15 mins until golden on the edges and just set, then leave to cool fully on the trays.
step 4
To ice the cooled biscuits, whisk together the icing sugar and egg white to form a smooth, pipeable icing. Pour into a reusable piping bag and pipe decorations onto the top of the biscuits. Set aside for the icing to set, at least 1 hr. Will keep in an airtight container for five days.
