Easy Chocolate Lebkuchen Cutouts

Submitted by Tinkerbell

"These German spice cookies, traditionally baked at Christmas time are usually cut into heart shapes, decorated with different colors of icing and then hung on the tree. This recipe makes 15 small cookies but is easily doubled. From the Usborne Children's World Cookbook that gramma gave my son when he was first learning to cook."

 

• Ready In: 37mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 15 small cookies

ingredients

• 4 tablespoons clear honey
• 4 tablespoons butter (or margarine)
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 egg yolk

• Icing

• 1⁄3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• food coloring (optional)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and grease baking sheet (or line with parchment paper).
2. In small saucepan, over low heat, stir together honey, butter and brown sugar until the butter has melted.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, ginger and allspice into a mixing bowl. Add egg yolk and stir to combine.
4. Add the honey and butter mixture to the flour. Stir to combined and then squeeze the mixture into a ball of dough with your hands.
5. On a lightly floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick.
6. Use cookie cutters or a knife to cut out different shapes. Roll out leftover dough and cut more shapes.
7. Use a spatula to lift cookies to the baking sheet. (For decorations, make a hole at the top of each cookie with a skewer.).
8. Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack.
9. For Icing: Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl. Mix in the lemon juice, stirring well. If desired, divide up mixture into smaller bowls and tint with a drop or two of food coloring.
10. When the cookies are cool, spoon the icing into an icing bag or a parchment paper cone and slowly pipe the icing onto cookies.