Elisenlebkuchen vs. Lebkuchen: what makes the difference

Every packet of Lebkuchen says something different: Lebkuchen, feine Lebkuchen, Oblatenlebkuchen, Elisenlebkuchen, Nürnberger Elisenlebkuchen. That is not marketing but food law – and the differences are considerable. Anyone who knows them understands why an Elisenlebkuchen is so much moister than what sits on the supermarket shelves in October.

The rule: nuts in, flour out

In Germany the “Leitsätze für feine Backwaren” lay down what may be called what. With Oblatenlebkuchen – the soft ones, baked on a wafer – one thing counts above all: the proportion of almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts.

An Elisenlebkuchen therefore consists of at least a quarter nuts, and there is almost no flour in it – the mixture is closer to a macaroon mixture than to a dough. That is why it stays moist, that is why it costs more, and that is why the nut content is stated on the packet of packaged Elisenlebkuchen.

The Lebküchnerei Düll in Nuremberg is well above the minimum with its nut content: hazelnuts and almonds are roasted and ground in house every day, and the mixture is spread onto the wafer by hand.

Brown Lebkuchen: the other family

What many people know as “Lebkuchen” – hearts from the fairground stall, Printen, honey cake, Dominosteine – belongs to the second family, the brown Lebkuchen. They are baked from a kneadable dough with plenty of flour and honey or sugar, without a wafer, and they are firmer and drier. Both are Lebkuchen, but they are two different kinds of baking. From the Düll bakery come the Dominosteine: cubes of brown Lebkuchen, fruit jelly and marzipan, coated with dark chocolate – invented in Dresden in 1936 as the “praline of the ordinary man”.

Why Nuremberg?

In the Middle Ages Nuremberg was one of the great trading cities of Europe: spices came into the city via Venice – cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice –, and in the Reichswald outside the gates the “Zeidler” kept bees whose honey the Lebküchner sweetened with. The Reichswald was regarded as “the bee garden of the Holy Roman Empire”. The first Lebküchner in Nuremberg is recorded in a document in 1395, and in 1643 the Lebküchner founded a guild of their own.

Since 1996 “Nürnberger Lebkuchen” has been a protected geographical indication (PGI) of the EU: the biscuit has to be made within the city of Nuremberg. “Nürnberger Elisenlebkuchen” must additionally meet the 25 per cent rule. The legend behind the name tells of a Lebküchner who baked a Lebkuchen without flour from the best ingredients for his sick daughter Elisabeth – she recovered, and the biscuit was given her name. There is no evidence for it, but it explains well what the point is.

And Switzerland?

Switzerland has a Lebkuchen family of its own that lies closer to the brown Lebkuchen: Basler Läckerli (honey, almonds, candied orange peel, kirsch, without a wafer, first mentioned in 1711), Appenzeller Biberli (honey dough around an almond filling; the name comes from the Latin “pigmentum” for spice, not from the animal), St. Galler Biber with an almond filling and an abbey motif, and the Zürcher Tirggel, wafer-thin and hard, baked in 90 seconds under extreme top heat. What there is hardly any of here: the soft Oblatenlebkuchen with a high nut content. That is exactly the gap the Elisenlebkuchen fills.

How to recognise a good Elisenlebkuchen

• Weight: an Elisenlebkuchen lies heavy in the hand – nuts are denser than flour.
• Cut surface: the mixture is moist, slightly grainy, with visible pieces of candied orange and lemon peel.
• List of ingredients: hazelnuts or almonds come first, flour far down the list or not at all. At Düll: hazelnuts, almonds, sugar, egg white, marzipan, candied lemon peel, candied orange peel, spices – and only then wheat flour.
• Coating: real chocolate or sugar icing, no “fat glaze containing cocoa”.

Our selection

To get to know them, the Elisenlebkuchen with dark chocolate or with sugar icing and almonds, singly at 100 grams. The classic bag of three brings together plain, sugar icing and dark chocolate. Special ones: orange icing, punch icing and Nocciolata with hazelnut. Vegan: the Elisenlebkuchen dark chocolate and the Dominosteine fruit cubes. For anyone who does not like the wafer: the plain Elisenschnitten without a wafer.

And for the “between the years” sort: the Christstollen with marzipan.

Storing

Elisenlebkuchen keep for several months when cool (16–18 °C), dark and airtight. If they go hard, the old trick helps: a slice of apple in the tin with them, replaced after two or three days – the Lebkuchen draw in the moisture and become soft again.

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