Bridal Shower Bites - Aunt Josette's Leib Kuchen

 I have been wanting to make these cookies since Aunt Josette sent the recipe for the shower, mainly because of the note she wrote on the recipe: "Grandpa Kessler loved these cookies!" One of (the many) great things about Aunt Josette is that she and Uncle George are a part of both sides of the family. As kids, that meant that we got to see them at family reunions on both sides, which then meant that we saw them probably more often than any other family members. Which was awesome. They bridged the gap for us between the Kesslers and the Mootses, which led to little insights like the one on the recipe. Grandpa Kessler loved these cookies.

I trust Grandpa's cookie recommendations

I saw the note and immediately scanned the recipe - molasses, spices, nuts - yup, of course Grandpa Kessler loved these cookies. They sound just like him! Grandpa and Grandma Kessler came to visit not infrequently, and every time, Mom and I would make sure that we had homemade cookies for Grandpa. We usually made ginger snaps, because he really liked those, but sometimes we would make snicker doodles instead. Although, to be honest, I don't remember Grandpa saying no to any homemade cookie we offered him (being a cookie monster must run in the family)! So it made sense to me that Grandpa loved these, and I was pretty sure I would, too.  If they're good enough for Grandpa...

Aunt Josette wrote another note on the recipe that caught my eye, too: "recipe over 150 years old." Wowza! Mom asked Aunt Josette about it, and it turns out that the recipe comes from Grandma Devore, who got it from her aunt (I think). Either way, it comes to us from the Devores, and I'm guessing that the 150 years old is a conservative estimate. The recipe reads like an old recipe - it calls for lard and no eggs, uses quite a bit of molasses, and relies on that old buttermilk-baking soda trick for leavening. And while Aunt Josette may only be able to trace her recipe back 150 years, the earliest written documentation of leib kuchen (or lebkuchen) dates to 13th century German monks (trust me, you'd make a note of it, too). Nuremberg is well known for its lebkuchen (as well as its trials), and the cookies are traditionally quite large and soft. They can also be made with honey or with the addition of black pepper.

It's pretty good straight from the bowl, too.

I hadn't read the Wikipedia article before I made the cookies, so I wasn't sure how big or thick they should be. The dough is refrigerated, which makes it a little harder to roll out, and the addition of chopped nuts and raisins makes it hard to roll them too thin. I rolled mine between 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. So mine came out thick and soft, despite my best efforts. If only I'd known that's what they were supposed to be like! They rise a bit in the oven, which helps them develop a nice cakey texture. They are brushed with a simple glaze before they go in the oven - this adds to their cakeyness, I think.

The dough is a little sticky, use lots of flour.

The recipe calls for candied fruit, nuts, and raisins. Candied fruit means, to me, those horrible bright green and red cherries they sell around Christmastime for fruitcake. This makes sense since leib kuchen are traditionally a Christmas cookie (I know that now - thanks Wikipedia). Anyway, the candied fruits do nothing for me, and since it's definitely not Christmastime, I'm not even sure I could get them. So I figured I'd scrap the candied fruit and just add more raisins. I also halved the recipe. Otherwise, I left it pretty much intact.

It's a quick dough to pull together - first, you dissolve the lard and sugars over low heat and let them cool. Then you just mix everything else into the sugar mixture, and let it sit overnight or for a few days. No electric mixer needed, just like the old days (yay - less cleanup!). I suppose that you could let the dough sit outside of the refrigerator (since I don't think the monks had refrigeration, but they might not have needed it during the winter), but I put it in there just in case. And that turned out to be a good thing, since the dough is pretty sticky when it's warm.

Grandma M's cookie cutter at work!

My mom recently sent me a cookie cutter of her mom's, and I hadn't had a chance to use it yet. I figured such an old cookie dough could use an old cookie cutter, and got out Grandma M's heart-shaped cutter. Unfortunately, the dough is speckled with raisins and the cookie cutter has a crimped edge - two things that do not go well together. The cutter had a hard time cutting through the raisins, so my heart-shaped cookies ended up not quite so heart-shaped. After a batch of oddly shaped cookies, I started using a serrated knife to cut the rolled out dough into squares as Aunt Josette suggested. This is much easier, especially since there is no dough to re-roll (assuming you are okay with the non-square cookies from the edge of the dough, which I am).

The knife worked better.

And they are good!  (If you don't like them, you should have your tongue scraped.) They are very much like Grandma K's gingerbread recipe (which also has a lot of molasses and spices), and the nuts and raisins add a nice contrast to the rest of the cookie. And they smell amazing when they're baking, too. All those warm spices and the molasses floating around the kitchen - yum! I can totally see why Grandpa K was such a fan, and only wish that he was here to help me eat all of these!

All done!  I'll take several, please.

Leib Kuchen
makes several dozen
1 lb, 2 1/2 oz molasses
1/4 cup lard
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 teaspoons soda
1/4 teaspoons each cloves, allspice, and ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup nuts
1 cup candied fruit
1/2 cup raisins
6 cups flour

For glaze:
1 egg yolk
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons milk

Dissolve the molasses, lard, and brown sugar over low heat. Let cool.  Add remaining ingredients.  Mix and let stand over night or several days. Roll and cut in squares with a knife or crimp cutter. Brush on glaze lightly before baking. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.