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Dessert

German Lebkuchen

German Lebkuchen are spiced cakes made with brown sugar, eggs, nuts, dried fruit, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

German Lebkuchen

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Mix brown sugar, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, mace, almonds, and citron in a large bowl.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in a little hot water and add to the mixture.

  3. Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll.

  4. Let the dough stand for 24 hours before baking.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into shapes.

  2. Place the shapes in buttered or floured tins.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes.

  4. Optionally, ice the cakes after baking or brush with sweetened water before baking.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and moisture, and helps give the cakes a soft, chewy body.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the stiff dough structure that holds the shapes when rolled and baked.
Baking soda
Reacts with the spiced, sugary dough to lighten its texture and help it rise.
Almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavor, and contribute fat that adds richness.

The step that matters

Let the dough stand for 24 hours before baking. Resting lets the spices and flavors meld and lets the stiff dough hydrate evenly, so the cakes bake with a more uniform texture and flavor.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, almond, flour):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, almond, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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