Home » There’s still time to bake for a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and tasty lebkuchen

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There’s still time to bake for a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and tasty lebkuchen — 7 Comments

  1. I was in the Army for a couple of years in the ’80s, and spent my time stationed in Furth, Germany – basically a suburb of Nurnberg. Nurnberg hosts an annual Christmas festival in the city square called Christkindlemarkt. It is a tradition going back several centuries and attracts huge numbers of visitors each year — probably in the hundreds of thousands.

    Anyway, that’s where I first tried lebkuchen and gluhwein (probably wrongly spelled). Gluhwein is a spicy wine served hot/warm. The locals raved about them both, but I didn’t care for either of them. The festival overall, though, was quite enjoyable. At least I’m glad to have attended it once.

    Thanks for provoking me to recall memories I have not thought about in years.

  2. I confine myself to American baking and buy the German things or eat them at my friend’s houses. My husband and I have different favorites, so unless I want to eat a whole recipe by myself, I just buy. I think traditional German lebkuchen has more spices and the brown sugar is very different here. Your recipe sounds more interesting.

    Like Scott, I am not crazy about Gluhwein, but it is fun to walk around the Christmas markets.

  3. Scott: if you read my recipe, you’ll find that I say this is not like the lebkuchen recipes you usually find, which I don’t much care for. I don’t know whether my ancestors adapted it to their own tastes, or whether this represents an older variant. But it’s quite different.

    Maybe I should give it another name.

  4. Scott’s comment reminded me of Christmas in Nurburg (realize he was in Nurnburg). Thanks.
    I’m gonna dig out the old slides I have of that. The city was decorated beautifully, and I remember having a photo of the girl behind the counter in the bakery.
    Neo: you might enjoy this:
    http://youtu.be/LOjFKBxpq14
    Merry Christmas.

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