German gingerbread cookies

German gingerbread are sweetened with honey instead of molasses, and flavoured with a little cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, cardamom, pepper, and cloves. These iced gingerbread cookies are a simple holiday treat!

German gingerbread cookies are a little different than North American gingerbread cookies. They are made with honey instead of molasses, and have a little cocoa powder. The spices are similar to the usual ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, but you also add cardamom, anise, and even ground pepper. They are often called "Lebkuchen," but also "Honigkuchen" (because they are sweetened with honey) or"Pfefferkuchen" (if they are made with pepper). Remember that "Kuchen" means cake in German.

Actually, this recipe is quite similar to the soft gingerbread cookies from Helen Goh+Ottolenghi's baking book called Sweet!

Many recipes for German gingerbread include ground nuts and some will also include chopped candied citrus peel. They are usually glazed in a thin icing that is a little more translucent than what you see here and they may be garnished with blanched almonds. This German gingerbread cookie recipe is adapted from a recipe shared by a German work colleague. I changed a few things, like the spices, and also doubled the butter. Still, her version didn't have any nuts or citrus peel, so I stayed true to the original.

The beauty of this cookie dough is that it is made from melted butter, so you don't have to worry about letting your butter come to room temperature because you can take the cold butter and melt it in a pot. The resulting dough is soft and might be too warm to roll, so I highly recommend letting it chill for 1 hour wrapped in plastic wrap to keep it from drying. The cold will help the cookies keep their shape when baked. 

Since these gingerbread are sweetened with honey instead of molasses, the flavour is quite distinct. I find you can really taste the honey and even the small amount of cocoa, which helps give these cookies a darker colour and also a more complex flavour that is a little more earthy and less sweet.

The spices in gingerbread vary widely, some focus heavily on ginger only, but in this case, I combined it with a little cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, cardamom, and a small amount of ground cloves. If your spices are very old, I highly recommend composting them and replenishing your stash with a new batch. Old spices have less flavour and the aroma is mostly gone. I like to add a little pepper to gingerbread dough, which adds a little zip to them, but feel free to tweak the spices to suit your tastes.

Traditionally, German gingerbread are coated in a very thin icing sugar glaze, which keeps the cookies fresh for longer, but I prefer to ice only the tops and with a thicker icing. I decorate them very simply, with pink peppercorns and green cardamom that I crush in a mortar and pestle. It's a nice, natural way of garnishing cookies without too much fuss.

Pink peppercorns have a more fruity flavour than black pepper so a little goes a long way. Don't overdo the garnish or it's all you will taste in the end.

I find these cookies taste better the day after they are made. This gives time for the flavours to develop and mingle. The cookies have a soft texture, a little toothsome, and the icing sets hard so you can easily store them without ruining your decorations!

Want more gingerbread recipes? Try gingerbread granola, slice-and-bake gingerbread cookies, gingerbread muffins, or even matcha gingerbread!

📖 Recipe