Time for some merry making in the kitchen this festive season…
Deliciously tempting festive treats that could make the ideal Christmas gift – leaving your loved ones jolly and wanting more!
This recipe will teach you how to prepare classic lebkuchen biscuits.
Ingredients
- vegetable oil for greasing
- 50g unsalted butter
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 100g runny honey
- 225g plain flour plus extra for rolling
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions:
1.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
2.
Brush two baking trays with vegetable oil.
3.
Gently heat the butter, sugar and honey together in a small saucepan, stirring until melted and smooth.
4.
Working off the heat, add the dry ingredients and stir until crumbly, then add the egg and work to a dough. If the mixture seems sticky add a little more flour.
5.
Tip out the dough on to a work surface, bring it into a ball and then pat it between your palms until it is smooth and shiny. Wrap in cling wrap, leave to cool and then chill for several hours or overnight.
6.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 2mm and cut out stars or other Christmas shapes of your choice.
7.
Rolling the dough twice you should get about 20 x 10cm stars or up to 30 x 6cm-8cm mixed shapes.
8.
If planning to hang the biscuits as decorations, make a hole in each one with a skewer.
9.
Arrange the biscuits on the baking trays – they don’t spread while cooking, so you can place them quite close together.
10.
Bake the biscuits for about 12 minutes until golden.
11.
The lower tray may take a little longer than the upper one.
12.
The holes may have closed up slightly in the oven, so use the skewer again to open them as necessary.
13.
Loosen the biscuits straight away with a palette knife before they harden and become brittle, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
14.
Ice them as you fancy and leave to set for an hour or two.