Oktoberfest Lebkuchenherzen

- German Gingerbread Hearts with Meringue Icing -

I must begin by admitting that these particular Lebkuchenherzen are not entirely German. The truth is, I love the look of lebkuchenherzen, but I also love Belgian/Dutch Speculaas cookies; they are perhaps my very favourite spice cookies. So, when I embarked on making my own version of the Oktoberfest Hearts, I couldn't help but use my speculaas recipe for the cookies. So ultimately, these are fancy speculaas cookies masquerading as lebkuchenherzen, although I did use the traditional German icing, and decorate them with nippy little German phrases, which is the essence of lebkuchenherzen. So, I guess they're a little bit of both. 

Ich habe das rezept gekriegen von eine website uber Oktoberfest und Oktoberfest rezepten. Damit, es stimmt das es ein guttes Deutches rezept is. Sowieso, ich hoffe das Sie von das rezepten genießen, auch noch die Speculaas rezept obwahl es nicht Deutsche is.

For the Speculaas: (adapted from Baked Explorations)

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ c flour
• 1 c dark brown sugar (packed)
• ½ tsp bks
• 1 ½ tbsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp cloves
• ½ tsp ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• 10 tbsp (1 ¼ sticks) butter, cool but not cold, cut.
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp fresh finely grated orange zest
• Coarse sugar

Directions:

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Drop the butter over the dry mix and cut in into the mixture.
3. Add the beaten egg and orange zest and cut mixture again until just combined.
4. Knead dough just to bring it together (don’t overwork it) and form a ball, the dough should be sticky and break apart easily, but shouldn’t stick to your hands. 
5. Cover and chill for an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease pans or line with parchment paper.
7. Take out dough a bit at a time, roll out on a floured work surface and cut into large heart shapes.
8. Place cookies on pans and dust with sugar. Bake for about 15 min – cookies should seem slightly overdone and deep brown.
9. Remove and cool.

For the Meringue Icing and Assembly:

Ingredients:

• 300g icing sugar
• 2 fresh egg whites
• Several drops of food colouring, whichever colours you wish

Directions for Icing and Assembly:

1. Whisk the egg white until soft peaks form. Gradually add the icing sugar into the egg whites, and continue mixing until stiff peaks form, and the mixture is thick and glossy.
2. Divide the icing into portions, and add a few drops of food colouring into each portion of icing. I did one portion of white icing, which I put into a piping bag with a fine-tipped nozzle, and used that to write the phrases on my cookies. I added pink food colouring into the other portion of icing, put that into a piping bag with a fluted nozzle, and used that for the outer decorations of the hearts. But you can use whichever colours and decorations you wish. Traditionally, though, lebkuchenherzen have cute German phrases written in the middle, and a decorative trimming of sorts around the edge of the cookie.
3.  Add whichever colours you wish into your portions of icing, transfer the icing to piping bags with the appropriate nozzles, and decorate the cookies to your liking. 
4. Once you have decorated the cookies, leave them on a counter or table in open air for an hour or so to let the icing harden. Once the icing is stiff and hard, you can individually wrap the cookies, or move them all into a tupperware, as the icing will no longer smudge once it has hardened.
5. The cookies keep well in the fridge or freezer, and are lovely as decorative gifts.

Enjoy!