Lebkuchen are spicy German biscuits that are associated with Christmas and are decorated with icing. They are a bit like gingerbread, but with a deeper, spiced flavour.
They make excellent gifts for teachers and friends. Put them in a pretty, little gift box with some ribbon tied around it, for a special little touch.
This dough is perfect for freezing, so make double and freeze half, wrapped in cling film or baking paper.
These are a classic German Christmas treat, rich with flavour and spice.

Grease a baking tray, set oven to 200℃
Put the honey, butter and sugar in a pan over a low heat, stir until butter has melted
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, ginger and mixed spice into a bowl and add the egg yolk
Mix the melted butter, honey and sugar into the flour mixture and mix to form a ball of dough
Place dough on a floured surface and roll out until it is about 0.5cm thick
Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, roll out leftover dough and cut out more shapes
Bake the biscuits for 7-8 minutes and leave them to cool on a wire rack
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add lemon juice, stirring well
If you want to use different colour icing, divide the icing sugar and lemon into separate bowls and add the food colouring, so each bowl can be a different colour
When the biscuits are cool, put the icing into an icing bag, squeeze the bag to pipe on the icing.
Kids can do all of this, but they have to be careful with taking it in and out of the oven.
Ingredients
Directions
Grease a baking tray, set oven to 200℃
Put the honey, butter and sugar in a pan over a low heat, stir until butter has melted
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, ginger and mixed spice into a bowl and add the egg yolk
Mix the melted butter, honey and sugar into the flour mixture and mix to form a ball of dough
Place dough on a floured surface and roll out until it is about 0.5cm thick
Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, roll out leftover dough and cut out more shapes
Bake the biscuits for 7-8 minutes and leave them to cool on a wire rack
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add lemon juice, stirring well
If you want to use different colour icing, divide the icing sugar and lemon into separate bowls and add the food colouring, so each bowl can be a different colour
When the biscuits are cool, put the icing into an icing bag, squeeze the bag to pipe on the icing.