Lebkuchen
At this time of year, the house really comes alive with the homely smell of biscuits baking, the oven warming the kitchen, and the delightful scent filling all the rooms. And what a delightful scent Lebkuchen have!!! Spices mingling with chocolate; it could not be more festive and exactly the kind of delectably crumbly biscuit one fancies after choosing the tree, among a crowd of stout, stunning firs at the Christmas Tree Farm (another wonderful seasonal smell!!) Happy Saturday!
Ingredients (makes about 20, of different sizes):
200 grams/7 ounces pure runny honey (like a fragrant Mountain Honey we brought home from Auvergne)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 plump cardamom pods
half a small star anise
1 1/3 cup plain flour
1 cup spelt flour
1 1/4 heaped teaspoon Mixed Spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 orange
120 grams/4 ounces good dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
In a medium saucepan, combine honey and butter, cut into small chunks. Heat over a low flame until butter is melted, and well-mixed. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool. Set aside.
Crush cardamom pods, and empty the pods in a mortar. Grind the seeds thoroughly with the pestle. Spoon ground cardamom into a small cup; set aside.
Place star anise halve in the mortar, and thoroughly crush and grind with the pestle. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine plain flour, spelt flour, ground cardamom and star anise, Mixed Spice, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Grate in the zest of half of the orange. Give a good stir, to mix.
Dig a well in the middle, and pour in cooled honey and butter mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon until a rather sticky dough forms. Place in the refrigerator, to cool, 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 180°C/355°F. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Set aside.
Once the dough has chilled and firmed up, roll it out, rather thick, onto a lightly floured surface. Using cookie cutters of different shapes (or sticking to the traditionally plain round ones), cut out the lebkuchen, and place onto prepared baking tray, spacing them a bit as the shall spread out a little.
Roll out scraps until you have used all the dough.
Place in the middle of the warm oven, and bake, at 180°C/355°F, 15 minutes until a nice golden brown colour.
Remove from the oven, and let the biscuits cool completely on wire racks.
In a medium bowl over simmering water, melt three-quarters of the dark chocolate, until smooth, shiny and silky. Remove from heat, and stir in remaining dark chocolate, roughly chopped, with a spatula until completely melted. Then, return over simmering water, until smooth and slack again, to temper. Remove from the heat.
Dip one side of the lebkuchen into the melted chocolate, gently shaking off excess chocolate, and return to the wire rack, to set.
Enjoy Lebkuchen with a cup of tea, coffee, Cardamom Hot Milk or for something more decadent, an Eggnog!
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Abundance
in memory of Mary Oliver
It's impossible to be lonely
when you're zesting an orange.
Scrape the soft rind once
and the whole room
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Look around: you have
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Always have.
You just didn't notice
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— Amy Schmidt, Abundance (in memory of Mary Oliver) (Rattle.com, January 20, 2019) (via Schonwieder)
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I considered using cinnamon in addition to or instead of cloves but I feel like there is cinnamon in so many…
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