Lebkuchen: Gingerbread it is not!

In the Nov-Dec issue of Dollhouse Miniatures, we included Jan Stuart's article on creating lots of little Lebkuchen goodies as well as building a stall to display these delectable treats. Here, Jan shares with us the history of Lebkuchen, then goes a bit more in depth on how to create the colors of Lebkuchen featured in the magazine. Enjoy!

(By Jan Stuart)

A brief history

"Leb-koo'-kin" - What is this stuff? You'll love it. For who doesn't love Christmas cookies and spicy gingerbread and Old World fairy tales come true? Or finding part of one's heritage alive and well loved? Old World Lebkuchen is all of these good things! Small wonder this truly old, old, edible tradition (over six centuries old!) holds a fascination for many—and I hope it will for you, too, once you read of this "German gingerbread's" astounding part in Christmases past and present. You can read the tutorial on pages 60-65 of DHM24 to re-create these beloved holiday treats in miniature along with a Nuremberg Christmas Market Stall in which to authentically display them. It's adapted from a fifteenth-Century original! And, now, for the true story of Lebkuchen!

Whether light in color and honey-sweet or dark and spicy, Lebkuchen is soft, sometimes glazed, and always satisfying in size, being bigger and far thicker than gingerbread cookies we are used to.  Gingerbread men it is NOT! First baked in the 1300s by German monksto be handed out on religious holidays, Lebkuchen has been adored for literally centuries in Christmas markets all over Europe. The markets originally allowed tradespeople to buy and sell their locally produced food, drink, and wares to one another, and—at Christmastime—to also share holiday goodwill, spiced wine or cider, and a few treats.  Among these were the generously sized Lebkuken gingerbread: honeyed from local hives, enlived by the European spice trade, and meant to be eaten out of hand and pocket. So valued became this Lebkuchen that, by the 1600s, Nuremberg, Germany had 14 master gingerbread bakers, all sworn to uphold the high standards of their Lebkuchen-baker's guild!  

Made from recipes handed down through generations, Lebkuchen's other traditional ingredients were (and are still) flour, eggs, and spices—like cloves, ginger, cardamon, allspice, anise, coriander, and sometimes mace and cinnamon. Wow! Later came nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts), white sugar, and sometimes even candied orange and lemon peel. These large Christmas goodies ranged in color from light beige (lightly spiced) to dark brown (very spiced), with the common round ones sized a good four and a half inches or more in diameter while rectangles weighed in even bigger (sized just about right, in fact, for Premo's Mini Metal Cutters, which just happen to come in the beloved, traditional shapes you see in the photos)!

Now, imagine yourself strolling the snowy cobblestones of a European town with a romantic-sounding name, such as Nuremberg, Dresden, Vienna, Amsterdam, or one of hundreds of others throughout Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, and more, happily holding to your warm wool coat a couple of big, authentic Lebkuchen (both of them happily half-eaten, of course)! Remember, these sweet gingerbreads were, long ago, placed by the hundreds into wood boxes or heavy cloth sacks and loaded onto a handcart or horse-drawn wagon to be hauled to that very same cobblestoned town square and displayed in a market stall put together with wooden pegs!   

Although, sadly, we can't return to such a Christmastime and place in the 1400s or 1800s, or anywhere in between, but our dolls in their mini winter wonderland can! If you are the proud owner of a miniature Renaissance castle or any Edwardian or Victorian scene, you'll surely want a Lebkuchen market stall to enliven their street this year. Or, just stand your market stall in cotton or glitter "snow," under a glass dome, and explain its fascinating heritage to your Christmas visitors. Afterwards, you can use it as a "first peice," in a new Christmas Market scene, with other stalls to be authentically filled with hand-blown German glass ornaments, hand-made wooden toys, etc.  Why not construct one with a grandchild as part of their homeschooling, or present one to a friend or parent to honor their heritage? Any or all will be worthy, happy projects for the coming holiday and beyond.

 

 

 

Click on the photos below for more close-up shots of the market stall and lebkuchen:

 

 

                   


NOTE: You can read more about the history of Lebkuchen at German Foods.org and other websites, some of which sell authentic (full-scale and edible) German Lebkuchen by mail order.

 

 

 

Creating the different colors and textures

The color mixes, reading the photo from left to right, are:
2 parts Carmel and 2 parts Burnt Umber
2 parts Raw Sienna and 2 parts Burnt Umber
3 parts Carmel and 1 part Raw Sienna
3 parts Raw Sienna and 1 part Burnt Umber
3 parts Carmel and 1/4 part Raw Sienna

A good way to remember which color is which is that "Raw Sienna" is ginger-ey brown, like "raw" gingerbread dough and "Burnt Umber" is very dark brown, like a "burnt" gingerbread would be! (The blocks of color in the background are some used in the almonds and cherries). Don't forget, you can apply the techniques to mini sugar cookies, too, just by changing colors of modeling compound. 

Click on the photos below to see Jan's techniques close-up:

           

 

 

Cutting out shapes; powdering and cutting out pieces; creating a Celtic knot pattern with beads.

         

Adding ground tea as chopped nuts; using tin foil to make crackle-topped pieces; rolling clay to create blanched almonds.


You can buy a copy of DHM24, with Jan's original Lebkuchen article as well as other great features, here.