In collaboration with Bloom In Doom Magazine
I can’t think of a cuter cookie than the humble lebkuchen. I make a huge batch of these little cuties every single year and they just make the build up to Christmas soooo magical (and delicious)! Gently spiced, soft heart-shaped cookies (with a splash of brandy…) glazed in orange drizzle icing, and dipped in dark chocolate. Best enjoyed when dunked in hot chocolate! This recipe is from my ebook ‘A Simple Christmas’ and it really is THE FAVOURITE recipe, so if there’s anything to make this holiday season, it’s these!
A Simple Christmas is a collection of vegan recipes for the holiday season. This ebook is full to the brim with rich, warming, and simple foods to help you enjoy Christmas in a kind and stress-free way. In 70+ pages, I share with you my favourite recipes to celebrate the yule tide and all of its flavours. You can look forward to simple and delicious recipes such as Cosy Gingerbread Waffles, Frozen Berry Cinnamon Rolls, Winter Vegetable Wellington, Stollen for Snowy Days, and so much more!
Shop Our Latest Ebook
A Simple Christmas is a collection of vegan recipes for the holiday season. This e-book is full of rich, warming, and simple foods to help you enjoy Christmas in a kind and stress-free way.
In 70+ pages, Katherine shares with you her favourite recipes to celebrate the yule tide and all of its flavours. This e-book takes your average recipe book and gives it a vegan twist, with a multitude of recipes ranging from traditional Christmas favourites to new seasonal dishes. You can look forward to simple and delicious recipes such as: Cosy Gingerbread Waffles, Frozen Berry Cinnamon Rolls, Winter Vegetable Wellington, Stollen for Snowy Days, and so much more!
It is my hope that, within these pages, I can help you to celebrate the holiday season in a simple and exciting way. Whether you’re completely new to the plant based world, have been here for a long time, or just want to try your hand at something different in the kitchen, this ebook is here to supply you with a multitude of vegan recipes to enjoy this winter.
Hearty, warming, and simple foods are the focus of this ebook. A Simple Christmas has been curated and developed to encourage new and already vegans to try their hands at vegan festive foods this holiday season. It is out belief that nothing is better than homemade. All of the recipes in our ebook have been well tested, so you can be sure of great results in the kitchen!
Now let’s get to business…
These lebkuchen are a household favourite and I gift them to all my friends every Christmas. Honestly, I’m always one for handmade Christmas gifts, ESPECIALLY if they’re edible! Not only are these cookies super yummy, they’re just so good to look at. I love how pretty the dappled icing looks on the surface of each cookie, and when you take a bite, it’s all flaky and the chocolate melts on your tongue and the cookie is all soft and gently spiced. I can’t think of a better way to define the yule tide.
Lebkuchen are traditional German Christmas cookies. Similar to gingerbread, these little beauties were originally derived from ‘honey cakes’ which can be traced back to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. This recipe, however, varies slightly from the traditional, as it doesn’t make use of any honey or animal products at all. When it comes to Christmas time, I always want to make everything I bake as friendly-to-all as possible, especially if I’m making a large batch of something to gift to people.
These lebkuchen are completely vegan and don’t require any yeast (that’s right, not a sourdough recipe today my friends)! Instead, we simply combine in a little arrowroot and baking powder and let the dough sit for an hour – this helps to form gluten strands in the cookie dough, making it softer and more chewy (the desired texture here).
In terms of flavouring these cookies, my family prefers a less gingery style of cookie, so I’ve gone with a good old mixed spice here. Typically mixed spice consists of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, star anise, and cardamom. You can either buy ‘ground mixed spice’ from the supermarket, or make your own by adding varying proportions of the above spices (I would favour cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, however, as the other spices are more overpowering). Alongside mixed spice, I throw in a couple heaped tablespoons of cacao or cocoa powder. You can’t taste the chocolate in the dough but it adds more depth to the overall flavour of the cookie.
The REAL chocolate flavour comes from the coating…
To decorate these babies, I always go for a simple icing sugar and orange juice glaze. You could use any citrus fruit juice you wanted, I just prefer oranges. When it comes to the icing, the thicker the better. The first few times I made these lebkuchen, I made my icing too thin and most of it ended up on the counter top rather than the cookies! You want it to be runny enough but still thick and glossy. As for the chocolate layer, you MUST wait until the icing is completely set first, otherwise the two merge and create a mess!
For the chocolate layer, I just use a vegan dark chocolate form the supermarket and dip the bottom of each cookie into that melted goodness. You could, however, choose to coat the ENTIRE cookie in chocolate, dip the top of the cookies in chocolate, dunk half the cookies in chocolate, or drizzle the chocolate over the top. Its completely up to you. As you can see from the photos, I went for a bit of everything and in my opinion, this is the prettiest way to go.
Well, there you have it folks! The cutest, simplest, tastiest vegan Christmas lebkuchen. Truly, you guys, nothing beats these lovely little cookies around the holidays. Dunk them in your hot chocolate, eat six of them in one sitting, gift them to your loved ones, hang them on the tree, you name it. Versatile and delicious. I hope you love these vegan lebkuchen as much as I do. If you make this recipe, make sure you leave a like and a comment down below! I absolutely love hearing from you guys and you can be sure that I will try my best to get back to you soon! And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @amongsttheflour I love seeing the photos of recipes you’ve all made! Have a joyous and merry winter and a very happy holidays! I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Katherine x
Shop Our Latest Ebook
A Simple Christmas is a collection of vegan recipes for the holiday season. This e-book is full of rich, warming, and simple foods to help you enjoy Christmas in a kind and stress-free way.
In 70+ pages, Katherine shares with you her favourite recipes to celebrate the yule tide and all of its flavours. This e-book takes your average recipe book and gives it a vegan twist, with a multitude of recipes ranging from traditional Christmas favourites to new seasonal dishes. You can look forward to simple and delicious recipes such as: Cosy Gingerbread Waffles, Frozen Berry Cinnamon Rolls, Winter Vegetable Wellington, Stollen for Snowy Days, and so much more!
The Cutest Vegan Lebkuchen
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 500g wholewheat bread flour
- 200g light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp cacao powder
- 3 tbsp ground mixed spice
- Pinch of salt
- 250ml vegan double cream
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp brandy
- Unsweetened plant milk, to glaze
For the icing
- 200g icing sugar
- The juice of ½ an orange
- 150g vegan dark chocolate
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, combined the flour, sugar, arrowroot powder, baking powder, cacao powder, mixed spice, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the double cream, oil, vanilla, and brandy. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir everything together with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface, and knead gently until all the flour has been absorbed and everything is well combined. The dough should be smooth with no large lumps.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place back into the bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rest for 1 hour. After 1 hour, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into four pieces. On a clean, well floured surface, roll out one of the pieces of dough until it is 1cm thick. Using cookie cutters, stamp out as many different shaped cookies as will fit.*
- Place the cookies 1cm apart on the baking tray and brush with a little plant milk. Repeat this process with the rest of the dough, reusing any extra cut-offs until all of the dough has been used up. You should end up with 2-3 trays of cookies.
- Bake the cookies in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Once slightly risen, remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely before decorating.
*Lebkuchen are typically love-hearts, stars, rounds, and bells, but you can use whichever shapes you have.
To decorate the lebkuchen
- In a bowl, whisk together the icing sugar and orange juice until completely smooth and glossy. You want the icing to be fairly thick, but still able to glide off of the back of the spoon.
- Take a cookie in between your forefinger and thumb, and gently press it face-down into the icing, making sure the entire top and sides of the cookie are submerged.
- Remove the cookie from the icing and turn it over so that it’s now face up. Place it on the cooling rack to dry (you might want to place parchment paper underneath to catch any drips). Repeat this process until all of the cookies have been glazed.
- Once the icing is completely dry, melt the chocolate – place a heat safe bowl over a saucepan of boiling water (to make a bain-marie). Break up the chocolate into the bowl and let it melt completely, stirring every now and then.
- Once the chocolate is completely melted and glossy, remove the entire bain-marie from the heat, keeping the bowl of chocolate over the pan of hot water (this will stop the chocolate from solidifying too fast).
- One cookie at a time, dunk the bottom (the un-iced side) of the cookie into the chocolate. Gently scrape off any excess chocolate with the back of a spoon and place the cookie back onto the cooling rack.
- Repeat this process for the rest of the cookies. Once all of the lebkuchen are dry, keep them stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place, and eat within a week. Enjoy!
Amongst The Flour 