Elisenlebkuchen

Gropius and I tried our hands at baking a special kind of lebkuchen this past weekend:  Elisenlebkuchen.  These are very similar to the lebkuchen that we purchase every time we're in Nürnberg from Düll (down the street from the Altbrauerei and the Tiergartnertor).  I found this recipe on Essen und Trinken's website and we decided to give it a whirl because we had some candied orange and lemon peel that was taking up valuable refrigerator space.

So, first up was assembling our mise en place (notice computer in background for recipe instructions--and helpful video!):

Marzipan, candied citrus, egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, lebkuchen gewürz (spices),
flour, almond meal, hirschhorn salz, salt

Interestingly, the woman in the video grates her marzipan which was something we've never seen before:

Candied peel on the left, marzipan on the right

We put it all in the food processor and gave it a spin to mix it all together.  Then, I put it all in a gallon-size Zip-Loc bag and snipped off one corner to make an ersatz pastry bag:

Oblaten and lebkuchen dough

I had to cut the Oblaten (literally, "the Host" wafers that they pass out for Communion in the Catholic church) down to size--each sheet made four rectangular cookies:

ready for their dough

The next step was piping the lebkuchen teig (dough) onto the oblaten.  I will warn you though--this next photo will remind you of something else!  After this picture was taken, we wet our fingers with some water and then smoothed out the dough.

I swear, Dido was NOWHERE near the kitchen!

See what I mean?  But, once it was smoothed out and baked, the finished product does not resemble anything a dog or cat might produce--I promise!  (This does remind me of the time I made Hungarian chocolate-chestnut "potato" truffles at Christmastime and Gropius thought I had been raiding Dido's litter box.  Why do all my special Christmas projects look like poo??)

finished batch on the left/back and ones ready for the oven on the front/right

The finished product is square instead of round (different Oblaten) and would look even better covered in chocolate or a sugar glaze, but the taste is divine!  We have made lots of Christmas cookies this year to share with friends, but these aren't leaving the house!

finished product

DELICIOUS!!