Holiday bakes for the grown ups... a work in progress

I fell in love with lebkuchen last year during winter break. I was listening to this Splendid Table podcast while working out (don't knock it. it works.) and was immediately insp... motiv... compelled to make my own. As in the "drop the dumbbells and Google that sh*t now" compulsion that sometimes overtakes me in those moments. They were delicious, but it was by then too late to let them age - I made them when break started and ate them that same night (though I did let 2-3 age in a cabinet for a few months).

This year, I was ready. I ordered pounds upon pounds of dried and candied fruit and assorted nuts in late October and got to baking on November 1st. Except I forgot a key detail from last year's podcast: the uncooked dough, and not the baked cookies, should ripen for two months. Thankfully, I already knew the baked cookies keep beautifully and other accounts suggest aging the cookies rather than the dough. Next year I'll get it right - as freaked out as I am by the prospect of raw dough containing eggs being left to sit out. Here are some of the beauties I pulled from the holiday baking cellar (let's be real: it's a huge Amazon Prime box awkwardly sitting on my basement floor) for a care package. Two fruit cakes keep these company and get fed a sherry-brandy mixture weekly, but you won't see those until showtime. I have marzipan and royal icing faff on my mind, you see.

The lebkuchen were Daring Gourmet's recipe. Pastry Gods, forgive me. I was careless in tempering my chocolate.

I felt like they were a little flat, possibly because I ground my own almond meal from flaked almonds (less absorbent?) and/or did not chill the dough sufficiently. The perfectionist in me had to make another batch with a higher dry-to-wet ratio and chilled dough, which resulted in a lovely rounded and somewhat cake-like cookie you will see in a later picture. Both variants are delicious, if you care.

I made two kinds of panforte to keep the lebkuchen company. Can you tell I really like candied citrus peel?

The lighter, softer one on the left is a mashup of a few recipes, predominantly one by King Arthur Flour. I wish it were firmer and drier, and perhaps had some bite to it. The one on the right is by David Lebovitz. I prefer this one's firm texture and interesting taste, though I imagine this amount of "savory" spice might not be for everyone. I wonder if there's a way to combine the two recipes to make a stiff, sharp panforte without cocoa.

#sweet #recipetesting