LEBKUCHEN - GERMAN SPICE COOKIES

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Back home in Germany, I never cared too much for Lebkuchen. They are one of the Christmas goodies that show up earlier and earlier in stores, and I hate being reminded of the cold and darkness of winter, when we still have a gorgeous late summer (and snow shoveling is something that I don't even want to think about!)

If "Cooks Illustrated" had not published a recipe for German spice cookies, I would never have dreamed of making them myself. Sheer curiosity prompted me to try it ("Americans and German Lebkuchen, haha!")

Freshly baked and incredibly good!

Reducing the sugar a little, and substituting some of the white flour with whole wheat, the result was absolutely amazing!

Instead of the usual chewy, dry-ish, generic store-bought stuff, these Lebkuchen were delicate and moist.

You could actually taste the toasted hazelnuts; and the spices were spicy in a good way, harmonious, not crude or overpowering.

The first time I made them they vanished so fast, I had to make two more batches, to sustain us until Christmas!

This year I went into a  Lebkuchen and Mohnstollen production frenzy, having to fulfill several special orders for both German specialties. But the spice cookies are so easy to make that even baking a hundred of them didn't feel too daunting.

I like nut bits to chew on, so I don't process them to a really fine meal. Moreover, I find that cookies with coarser nut meal spread less.

If you want you can brush the bottom with chocolate - but to me this seems a bit overkill. The cookies can really hold their own, they don't need any further enhancement!

These cookies can hold their own, they don't need further enhancement

 LEBKUCHEN - GERMAN SPICE COOKIES (adapted from "Cook's Illustrated")
(48 - 50)

177 g/6.2 oz whole hazelnuts, toasted
142 g/5 oz whole almonds, toasted
150 g/5.3 sugar
3 g/0.1 oz cinnamon, ground (1 ½ tsp.)
½ tsp. cardamom, ground
½ tsp. nutmeg, ground
3 tbsp. orange zest (2 oranges)
2 tbsp. lemon zest (2 lemons)
175 g/6.2 oz all-purpose flour
38 g/1.3 oz whole wheat pastry flour
10 g/0.4 oz Dutch cocoa (2 tbsp.)
¼ tsp. salt
85 g/3 oz unsalted butter (6 tbsp.)
150 g/5.3 oz light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper (about 20 cookies per baking sheet.)

Process nuts, sugar and spices together in food processor to coarse meal. Add orange and lemon zest and pulse to combine.

Add eggs one at a time

Whisk flour, cocoa and salt together in a small bowl. In a stand mixer with paddle, beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, last adding vanilla until combined.

Add nut mixture until just incorporated

Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour mixture until combined (don't overmix!). Mix in ground nut mixture until just incorporated.

Working with a small truffle scoop, drop dough on baking sheets, 1.5 inches/4 cm apart.

A small truffle scoop works best for placing the cookies on the sheet

Bake cookies for 7 minutes, rotate sheets (if you bake on more than one tier) and continue baking for another 6 - 7 minutes, until edges are set, but centers are still soft, puffy, and elastic to the touch, with tiny holes and cracks. (Cookies will look raw between cracks, and seem underdone!)

Cookies will still look raw between cracks and seem underdone

Let cookies cool on the sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a rack and let them cool completely.

Lebkuchen should be stored in a tin can in a cool place, they keep for at least two weeks.

MOHNSTOLLEN - GERMAN POPPY SEED STOLLEN

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The kids no longer living with us, I get late into Christmas mode. No Adventskranz (traditional wreath with 4 candles lit for each Sunday before Christmas) on the table, no calendar window to open.

Toasted hazelnuts: one of my favorite things

Having to limit my output I'll do two of the best: Mohnstollen (Poppy Seed Stollen) and Lebkuchen (German spice cookies).

Before I came to Maine I never made either of them. Stollen I always got from my mother, and I never cared too much for Lebkuchen (something that should change dramatically.)

To find a perfect recipe for Mohnstollen wasn't easy - there are so many of them. Finally I settled on one whose list of ingredients I liked best - it had hazelnuts!

I would add an overnight fermentation, reduce the sugar, and exchange some of the white flour with whole wheat, and half of the raisins with cranberries for a little bit of tartness.

So far so good! But what about the most important part of the Stollen: the poppy seed filling?

Ground poppy seeds

Germans use "Mohnback", a ready-made poppy seed mix you can buy everywhere. Luckily I found a recipe for a DIY Mohnback, with almond paste, semolina flour, milk and eggs.

Our Cuisinart coffee mill that we were about ready to trash - it did a miserable job with coffee beans - now got a second chance.

And, lo and behold, it ground the poppy seeds as if it were made for just that purpose.

The Mohnstollen turned out so good that now I sell some, too - and I won't tell my mother that mine is better than hers!

 
MOHNSTOLLEN - GERMAN POPPY SEED STOLLEN  (1-2 loaves)
(adapted from "Essen & Trinken")

SPONGE
125 ml milk, lukewarm
125 g all-purpose flour
17 g instant yeast

POPPY SEED FILLING
148 g milk
10 g semolina flour
143 g poppy seed, ground
26 g honey
1 pinch salt
1 egg yolk
57 g raisins, coarsely chopped
11 g almond slices
100 g almond paste, grated

FRUIT SOAKER
50 g raisins
50 g dried sweetened cranberries
50 g orange peel
50 g citron
50 g rum (or orange juice)

DOUGH
all sponge
50 g whole wheat pastry flour
275 g all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
20 g honey
10 g milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
200 g butter, softened
100 g almond paste, coarsely grated (box grater)
50 g hazelnuts, toasted, chopped
50 g butter, melted, for topping
50 g powdered sugar, for topping

Fruit soaker

DAY 1
For the rum fruits, chop all fruits in a food processor (or with a chef's knife) to desired size. Transfer to a small bowl, add rum (or juice) and mix well.

For the sponge, stir together flour, yeast and lukewarm milk until all flour is hydrated. Let rise at room temperature, until foamy and just ready to collapse.

The sponge is bubbly and about ready to collapse - just right!

For the filling, bring milk to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and stir in semolina flour.Add poppy seeds, honey, salt, egg yolk, raisins and almond slices. Mix well. Add almond paste and combine. Cover and keep cool until using.
  
Place sponge, flours, honey, salt, milk, vanilla extract, butter and almond paste in bowl of stand mixer (paddle attachment), and mix at low speed (or mix by hand). Add hazelnuts and rum fruits, and continue mixing until everything comes together. Switch to medium-low speed (or continue kneading by hand) and knead for 4 minutes.

Fruity, nutty dough

Let dough rest for 5 minute, then resume kneading for another 1 minute. Place dough ball in oiled container with lid, and refrigerate overnight.

DAY 2
Remove dough from refrigerator at least 2 hours before using, to come to room temperature.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough into an 18 x 12 inch/45 x 30 cm square. (For smaller individual loaves, cut dough into 2 equal pieces, and roll them out separately, the short side should be about the depth of the baking sheet.)

Spread poppy seed filling over dough square, leaving the edges free

Using a spatula, spread poppy seed filling evenly over dough square(s), leaving the edges free (1/2 inch). Fold short sides in, then loosely roll up from long side. Place stollen, seam side down, on parchment lined baking sheet.

First fold the short sides in, then roll up from the long side

Cover stollen with plastic wrap,  and let rise at room temperature for 60 - 120 minutes, or until it has grown about 1 1/2 times its original size, and a dimple, made with your finger, stays visible. (If the stollen doesn't rise long enough, it might split open in the oven.)

Stollen: speckled from nuts and fruits (here a small one)

Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC.

Bake large stollen for about 60 - 70 minutes (smaller ones: 45 - 50 minutes), rotating them 180 degrees after half the baking time, for even browning. They should be golden brown and register at least 195ºF/90ºC on an instant read thermometer.

Stollen fresh from the oven

Brush with melted butter while still hot. Dust generously with powdered sugar. Repeat this procedure once again. This sugar coating doesn't only protect the stollen from drying out - it also covers a lot of sins, like cracks or blemishes in the crust!

Let the stollen cool completely on a rack. (I then usually cut larger stollen in halves.)

Brush with butter followed by a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar

Keep stollen cool, wrapped in aluminum foil. It takes a day or two to develop its full flavor. Mohnstollen keeps for at least 2 weeks.

Two who are happy about the snow - and don't have to shovel!

December 2016: Following suggestions by my family, I modified the ingredients for the final dough slightly, reducing the amount of whole wheat flour and adding a bit of milk and honey (therefore I removed the BreadStorm formula from the post.)

Submitted to Yeast Spotting

Submitted to Panissimo:  Bread & Companatico                                       
                                        Indovina chi viene a cena