Lebkuchenwuerfel

Today I made gingerbread slices to give them as teacher's present for Christmas. They are really yummy and the hundreds and thousands make them quite playful which I thought kind of fits nicely for a pre school. You can of course also ganache them with dark chocolate which also works well.
Happy 3rd Advent to everyone!

For this typical German Lebkuchen (gingerbread) you'll need a spice mix that will give those slices their authentic taste. In Germany, around Christmas time you'll be able to buy ready made spice mixes for all sorts of different Lebkuchen and Pfefferkuchen but you might not get it in Australia. However it's easily mixed together with spices available here and I'll give you a link to a recipe for Lebkuchengewuerz.

Recipe:
100 g dark chocolate, melted
200 g butter, melted
200 g brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons red wine
100 g ground hazelnuts
200 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons gingerbread spices*(see note)

Icing:
200 g pure icing sugar
6-8 tablespoons orange juice
 hundreds and thousands to sprinkle

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.  Whisk together chocolate, butter, brown sugar and eggs.
3. Combine hazelnuts, flour, baking powder and spices and fold through the chocolate-butter mixture.
4. Line a deep baking tray (34x24 cm) with baking paper and spread dough evenly in tray.
5. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer pokes in the centre comes out clean. Let cool.
6. Make icing and spread over slice then sprinkle with hundreds and thousands and let set.
7. Cut into squares.

*note;  "Lebkuchengewuerz" is called for in many German Christmas recipes.  It consist of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice, but also coriander and cardamom, which are not so common in in other spice mixes. If you do not have access to packets of "Lebkuchen Spice", you can make it at home, with this recipe.