Lebkuchen Spice
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Lebkuchen Spice
- Ingredients
- 8 tsp (15g) cinnamon
- 1 tsp (2g) cloves
- 1 tsp (1g) allspice
- 1/2 tsp (1g) coriander
- 1/2 tsp (1g) cardamom (only the seeds, don't include the shells)
- 1 tsp (1g) ginger powder
- 1/4-1/2 tsp (1/2g) ground nutmeg
(possibly increase if using pre-ground since that isn't nearly as strong)
- 1/4-1/2 tsp (1/2g) mace powder
- 1 1/2 - 2 pieces (2g) star anise
(whole "star", not just the seeds; depends very much on the size of the stars)
- 1/2 tsp (1g) dried orange zest
- 1/2 tsp (1g) dried lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp (1g) fennel seeds
- Instructions
- Simply grind all spices together using a spice grinder or something similar
- Notes
- Everything always tastes better when whole seeds are used, but you should be able to
replace the spices with pre-ground versions as well (I actually used pre-ground
coriander when I made this). Pre-ground cardamom is utterly horrible, though.
- Note that my scales are cheap and not properly calibrated, so the gram measurements
may not match the teaspoon measurements exactly. Also, there are a lot of different
factors that determine the correspondence between teaspoons and grams, so it's
impossible to give an exact conversion anyways. It really doesn't matter if it isn't
very exact, though, because the recipe is fairly flexible. You really need to
experiment by yourself to find out what tastes the best.
- There has been some confusion regarding the teaspoon measurements, since they can be
done using the seeds or pre-ground spices, resulting in differing amounts of actual
spice. If I remember correctly, I originally measured cloves, allspice, cardamom,
and fennel using the whole seeds, although I later also used whole coriander seeds.
Note that the measurements aren't very exact, for instance, since the allspice seeds
are fairly large, I just filled the teaspoon and had them go a bit over the top. I
measured cinnamon, ginger, orange zest, lemon zest, coriander, nutmeg, and mace as
powder, although there shouldn't be much of a difference for the coriander. One
important detail is that I used freshly ground nutmeg, which is much stronger than
the pre-ground versions. I mainly did it this way because those are the formats I
had each of the spices in. Ideally, whole seeds should be used as much as possible,
as already mentioned in the last note. I have also used whole dried mace pieces
instead of mace powder. If they are broken into small enough pieces, they can also
be measured with a teaspoon like the powder. In one measurement I took, 1/4 tsp of
small mace pieces weighed the same as about 1/2 tsp of powder, but it really doesn't
matter if it isn't that exact.
- It probably is better to just add orange and/or lemon zest when making the Lebkuchen,
but it's easier to put it directly into the spice. The Lebkuchen also tastes fine
without any orange or lemon zest, just maybe not quite as good. Honestly, this spice
can be changed a lot and still called Lebkuchen spice - back in the day, everyone had
their own special mixture. Just follow your heart.
- On second thought, don't, that's what killed Romeo and Juliet.