How to cook Nuremberg gingerbread without flour: recipe with photo

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Nuremberg gingerbread (lebkuchen) is a traditional delicacy of the Franco-Bavarian town of Nuremberg. Sweets have been baked since the Middle Ages. The most popular recipe for gingerbread is on Christmas Eve, although locals cook it throughout the year. This delicacy is sold in any pastry shop, moreover, the manufacturing recipe is patented and protected - this is a Nuremberg trademark, under whose name sweetness is produced. Only gingerbread made in this town can bear this name.

The history of the Nuremberg gingerbread

According to unconfirmed reports, gingerbread was first made at the end of the 15th century - the oldest recipe written on paper dates back to the 1480s. Now it is kept in the German National Museum in Nuremberg. It is believed that this recipe was used to make gingerbread withportrait of Frederick III, which he handed out to children during the Christmas week of 1487. More than 360 years later, when King Maximilian II arrived in Nuremberg, local residents made huge lebkuchens on which they wrote: “Glory to our king.”

Features of making gingerbread

Nuremberg gingerbread differs from the usual ones not only in that it can be prepared exclusively in the Franco-Bavarian city. You can find many different variations of recipes, both with and without flour. But even if it is on the list of ingredients, there will be very little of this component in the gingerbread.

The recipe according to which gingerbread does not contain flour, according to legend, appeared in 1720. It was thought out by a baker who wants to feed his sick daughter with something very tasty and sweet, but light, so that the body does not give all its strength to digest food. Therefore, he completely excluded flour from the recipe, which is why the gingerbread turned out to be melting in the mouth. By the way, the girl's name was Elsa, so these treats are named after her - Elisenlebkuchen.

Nurnberg Flourless Gingerbread: ingredients needed for cooking

To make lebkuchen you will need many different components. By the way, the cost of such a recipe is relatively high. But what can you do to fully feel the spirit of Christmas and enjoy the incredibly delicate, delicious taste of gingerbread!

So, to prepare a treat, you need to purchase the following products in the store:

• eggs - 2 pcs.;
• sugar - 100 g;
• vanilla sugar - 1 sachet;
• nutmeg - ¼ teaspoon;
• s alt - 1 pinch;
• cinnamon - 1 teaspoon;
• cloves - ½ teaspoon;
• hazelnut or ground almonds - 125g;
• finely chopped almonds - 125g;
• finely chopped orange and lemon candied fruits - 100 g each;
• rum or almond essence - ½ teaspoon;
• chocolate or lemon glaze;
• waffles - 20 pieces.

Step one: food preparation

The ingredients in the Nuremberg gingerbread recipe can be bought ready-made in the store or you can buy whole foods and do the preparation yourself. For example, take ready-made almonds (250 g is enough), pour boiling water over it to make it easier to clean, and leave for ten minutes. Then remove the skin, chop one half of the resulting amount of almonds into small pieces, grind the other part into powder.

Instead of sugar, honey or even beet molasses is allowed - it is cheaper, gives finished products darker tones, and is not inferior in sweetness to the first two products. Next, you need to prepare candied fruits, that is, finely chop both lemon and orange. Another recipe for flourless Nuremberg gingerbread includes icing or fudge to decorate ready-made sweets. You can mix 200 g of powdered sugar with two tablespoons of lemon juice and/or plain water, or melt the chocolate. It will turn out deliciousicing for decorating confectionery.

Stage Two: Combining Components

First, you need to break the eggs, add sugar to them and beat the mass well until a homogeneous consistency is obtained. To make the sugar powder dissolve faster and better, you should take eggs at room temperature.

All other components are added in turn to the resulting whipped cream: almonds, candied fruits, spices, s alt and vanilla sugar. The mass should be such a consistency that it does not spread over the baking sheet. If too runny, you can add crushed biscuits, ground walnuts, or a little flour.

Step three: baking

The mixture obtained for the preparation of Nuremberg gingerbread is spread on waffles. In this case, the thickness of the mass should be about 1 cm. The delicacy is placed in an oven preheated to 175-180 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

If someone does not like waffles or simply does not want to see them in this recipe, you can spread the mixture prepared for gingerbread directly on a baking sheet pre-lined with baking paper.

In conclusion, it remains only to get the gingerbread cookies out of the oven in time so that they do not burn, and decorate. It is advisable to use the icing on already cooled lebkuchen so that it does not run. It will be convenient to use a silicone brush to smear with glaze.

Recipe with flour - better or worse?

The recipe was described above withphoto of Nuremberg gingerbread, which are prepared without flour at all. There are also options for making flour confectionery. In this case, very little is required. This is the main feature of Lebkuchen. If you look at the recipes for ordinary gingerbread, you will notice that they need to take a much larger amount of flour.

It's hard to say which recipe is better. With or without the addition of flour, Nuremberg gingerbread is insanely delicious. The only difference is that the delicacy prepared without this component is more tender and lighter.

If you want to try gingerbread made with flour, you can use this interesting recipe:

• Pour 150 ml of honey into a cup, put on medium heat, then add 50 g of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water and sunflower oil. In this case, the mixture must be stirred. When you get a homogeneous mass, remove from heat and let cool.
• Grate the zest from one orange or lemon.
• 100 g dried apricots cut into small pieces.
• Add a teaspoon of gingerbread spices to the cooled mass, mix well.
• Pour prepared orange zest and add one egg yolk, stir.
• Add 350 g of sifted wheat flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and some cocoa powder.
• Then add 75 g of almond flour and 100 g of chopped hazelnuts, as well as 50 g of candied orange and pieces of dried apricots to the mixture.

The mass must be kneaded very well. You should get a sticky, dense dough thatit will be convenient to form. Make Nuremberg gingerbread (lebkuchen) with flour as follows:

• put on a baking sheet wafers with a diameter of about 9 cm;
• tear off a piece of dough, form a ball and place it on the wafer so that its edges do not stick out;
• put in an oven preheated to 170 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes.

When they are ready, decorate with icing, as already written above, and the gingerbread is ready. Strictly speaking, this recipe can also be considered without flour, since there is practically no flour here - only 350 g. But it is worth remembering that the calorie content in both cases will be quite high due to the content of other products.