Lebkuchen

Merry Christmas 2015!

Lebkuchen (from Good Food Magazine January 2006)
(Makes 30)

250g plain flour
85g ground almond
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch each ground cloves, grated nutmeg and black pepper
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
200ml clear honey
85g butter
1 lemon, finely grated zest

For the icing
100g icing sugar
1 egg white, beaten

Tip the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Heat the honey and butter in a pan over a low heat until the butter melts, then pour into the flour mixture along with the lemon zest. Mix well until the dough is combined and fairly solid. Cover and leave to cool.

Heat oven to 180C. Using your hands, roll dough into about 30 balls, each about 3cm wide, then flatten each one slightly into a disk. put the biscuits onto baking trays lined with greaseproof paper Bake for 15 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To ice the biscuits, mix together the icing sugar, egg white and 1-2 tbsp water to form a smooth, runny icing. Dip the top of each biscuit in the icing and spread with a knife. Put back into cooling oven turned off for 5 mins with the door open. Remove from the oven and leave to cool and the icing to set.