Lebkuchen Toffee Cookies
Inspired by German gingerbread, these lebkuchen toffee cookies are flavoured with a festive gingerbread spice blend featuring cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom.
From the book
Cookies & Crumbs: Chunky, Chewy, Gooey Cookies for Every Mood
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Introduction
Lebkuchen is the German word for gingerbread. It comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes and consistencies. Variations of this spice mix can be found in many countries. What all the varieties have in common is that they contain gingerbread spices (or Lebkuchengewürz). The spice mix featured here works well in other cookies and biscuits and is particularly good with slightly spicy, full-bodied and earthy tones.
Ingredients
| 160g (5¾oz/¾ cup minus 2 tsp) | butter |
| 110g (3¾oz/½ cup plus 1 tbsp) | light muscovado sugar |
| 70g (2½oz/5⅔ tbsp) | caster (granulated) sugar |
| Finely grated zest of ½ tangerine | |
| 1 | egg |
| 180g (6¼oz/1⅓ cups) | plain (all-purpose) flour |
| 20g (⅔oz/2⅓ tbsp) | spelt flour |
| 1g (⅓ tsp) | baking powder |
| 3g (1 tsp) | bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) |
| 1½g (½ tsp) | salt |
| 4g (1½ tsp) | gingerbread spice mix, see below |
| 110g (3¾oz) | toffee, finely chopped |
| For the gingerbread spice mix: | |
|---|---|
| 35g (6 tbsp) | ground cinnamon |
| 6g (2 tsp) | ground cloves |
| 1½g (½ tsp) | ground ginger |
| ¼ tsp | ground nutmeg |
| 1½g (½ tsp) | ground cardamom |
| 3g (1 tsp) | ground star anise |
| 3g (1 tsp) | ground allspice |
Method
Combine all the ingredients for the gingerbread spice mix in a separate bowl and set to one side.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Leave to cool for 20–30 minutes.
Beat the butter and sugars in a bowl using a balloon whisk for about 30 seconds. Add the tangerine zest, then add the egg and beat until smooth.
Combine the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and the 1½ teaspoons of spice mix in a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in two batches until they are just combined, ensuring that you scrape the sides of the bowl between batches.
Mix the toffee into the dough, then cover the bowl with a lid and leave to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Take out of the refrigerator and scoop 62g (2¼oz) balls of dough using an ice cream scoop, or roll balls using about 2 tablespoons of dough. There should be enough to make about 12 cookies.
For a more distinct flavour and taller cookies, place the dough balls in a container with a lid or on a tray that you then cover with cling film. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours – preferably overnight.
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan (180°C/ 350°F/gas 4).
Place the dough balls approximately 5cm (2in) apart on baking trays lined with baking parchment. Bake in the middle of the oven for 11–12 minutes. Bake one sheet at a time if not using a fan oven. The cookies should have expanded, risen and begun to develop a firm but slightly glistening surface.
Remove the trays of cookies from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer them to a cooling rack and leave to cool for at least another 10–15 minutes.
Cookies & Crumbs by Kaja Hengstenberg (Quadrille, £16.99) Photography by Lennart Weibull
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