Homemade Lebkuchen, almond, honey and chocolate

The preparation step by step

1. Weighing paste and cover

   Weigh 150 g of ground almonds, 150 g of flour, 120 g of honey, 60 g of brown sugar, 50 g of butter and 50 g of candied orange. Keep the 150 g of dark couverture chocolate in a separate bowl. Also prepare 5 g of baking powder and 5 g of gingerbread mixture.

2. Chop the fruit

   Cut the candied orange very finely with a knife, into small pieces of 2 to 3 mm. Remove the pieces glued with a little flour taken from the 150 g. The goal is to distribute the fragrance without creating large blocks in each cookie.

3. Fond the sweet ingredients

   Gently heat honey, brown sugar and butter in a saucepan. Stir until a homogeneous mixture is obtained, without prolonged boiling. Pour into the bowl and let cool for 15 minutes; it should no longer be hot when adding the egg.

4. Fold in the egg

   Break the egg in a small bowl and beat it with a fork. Pour it into the warm mixture and stir with the spatula. Check the bottom and edges: all the preparation must have the same appearance, without separate oily part.

5. Add the dry ingredients

   Mixture of flour, almond, baking powder and spices. Add them to the bowl with the chopped orange. Stir just until it forms a thick paste. Do not knead it for long: we are looking for a soft biscuit, not an elastic paste.

6. Firming in the refrigerator

   Cover and leave 1 hour in the refrigerator. The dough becomes easier to portion. Prepare two baking tray covered with baking paper and a small bowl of water to slightly moisten the fingers when shaping.

7. 24 biscuits

   Divides the dough into 24 servings of near weight. Quickly roll each portion and flatten it into a 5 cm curved disc. Hands barely damp limit adhesion; do not soak cookies. Space the disks on two plates.

8. Cuis until taken from the center

   Preheat to 170 °C in conventional oven setting (no fan). Cook one plate at a time 13 to 15 minutes. The edges are taken and the center still flexible, without raw dough. Too long a cooking would lose the softness sought.

9. Cool completely

   Wait 5 minutes before moving the cookies on a rack with a flat spatula. Leave at least 45 minutes: chocolate should not be placed on a hot cookie, otherwise it would remain soft for a long time.

10. Melt the chocolate

    Chop the 150 g of dark chocolate and place them in a dry bowl over a pan of simmering water. The bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until the pieces disappear and then remove from the bain-marie; no drop of water should fall into it.

11. Finely covers the summits

    Place a small spoon of chocolate on each cold cookie and spread with the back of the spoon. Leave a thin layer on top, without drowning the sides. Divide the chocolate between the 24 pieces.

12. Let it take and range

    Wait about 1 hour in a cool room, until the cover no longer marks easily to the touch. Then store the biscuits in a box with paper between the layers. Present them without any other decoration.