Looking For a Gingerbread Fix from Germany

What do you do when you can’t find something? Make it, of course!

We were first told about German gingerbread during our fall tour in Passau, Germany. A must to try — or so our tour guides said.

But finding a place to buy it proved to be more difficult.

We visited Passau on a Sunday when nothing was open, except a few souvenir shops selling holiday ornaments, books, and the odd can of soda or beer, no gingerbread.

When we reached Nuremberg a few days later, it happened to be German Reunification Day. Again, nothing was open — not even souvenir shops this time.

We passed a window with great-looking gingerbread cookies but the store was shut up tight. It was like the towns were telling us tourists— there’s no gingerbread for you — not in Germany, today anyway.

Thus, we came home without the sweet cookie treat — which was never seen in a gingerbread boy or girl form — only a round, glazed, slightly puffy cookie — stacked beautifully in a decorative package. Still, I would have liked to have tasted it — “Real German Gingerbread.”

Now that it’s holiday baking time, I decided to look for a German gingerbread recipe. There are plenty online, claiming to be from a parent, grandparent, or other family member who came from Germany armed with their “family” recipe.

I did what anyone would do and just picked one that had good reviews, as well as listing the ingredients I already had on hand.

I noticed several things immediately. This recipe used honey and lemon zest. It used 5–6 different spices — similar to what we’d call pie spices here in the U.S. — cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, etc.

It used ground almonds (not almond flour and not chopped almonds). I ground them in my coffee bean grinder. It was messy. Next time I’ll use a food processor (I think).

But most notably, the recipe did not call for molasses!

Another nice thing about this recipe is that there’s no need to use a mixer. It mixes up well with a spoon or spatula and without dragging my stand mixer out of the cupboard.

Why German Gingerbread?

There are a few reasons I wanted to make German Gingerbread cookies.

We went on our trip to Europe and were unable to purchase Gingerbread, due to the timing of our visit.

Both my husband and I have German ethnicity in our heritage.

I like to bake and add different cookies to our holiday plates. It is holiday time.

Gingerbread History

German Spice Cookies or Gingerbread, also known as known as Lebkuchen, has a long history, especially in Europe. It was brought to Europe by a Greek monk in 992 C. E. who taught the French Christains how to make it (source).

The German history dates back to the early 1400s in Franconia (source). Spices were obtained by cities on the spice routes, aided the the river system in Europe.

“The definitive gingerbread metropolis was the grand city of Nuremberg, surrounded by forests with large numbers of beehives. The city’s gingerbread bakers found themselves directly at the well of sweet honey.” — A History of Gingerbread

Besides access to fresh, sweet honey from the forests surrounding Nuremberg, the gingerbread that carries the city’s designation must be made with 25% nuts, accounting to this source.

The sweet, spiced treat kept well and travelled well during long journeys.

Gingerbread houses came on the scene in the 1600s in Germany (source).

What did I think of the Gingerbread I made?

The gingerbread I made was good. My husband likes it very much, which pleases me. It is tasty and I like it with my tea.

However, grinding the almonds was a pain. I will look for pre-ground almonds for my next batch. According the author of the recipe I used, almond flour is NOT the same and will NOT yield the same results. If I cannot find pre-ground almonds, I’ll use my food processor.

Secondly, the Nuremberg Lebkuchen must have icing made with high quality ingredients. I followed the recipe for the icing from the same author that shared the cookie recipe.

It was too thin and watery. The problem? It called for the juice of one lemon and my lemon must have been very juicy! Next time I’ll use a measuring spoon and add the lemon juice in small amounts until I get the right consistency.

I elected not to cover all my cookies with the icing because I saw the problem immediately. It made them soggy and did not form a hardened shell, thus telling me the sugar was too diluted.

My husband wants me to leave the icing off entirely. We’ll see.

I did like that the dough could be made ahead and left out overnight. The dough was also easy to work with. And, as I mentioned earlier, the cookies are delicious!

If I ever go back to Nuremberg, you can be sure I’ll get some Gingerbread. Now that I know more about it, I’m even more sure I need a fix from the source! In the meantime, I’ll just keep perfecting my own!