Elisenlebkuchen - low-carb, gluten-free and sugar-free

There are many things and foods that say “Christmas” to me. Especially German/Bavarian ones for me! None more so than Elisenlebkuchen however! They are a Bavarian specialty and every year I feel compelled to make them! They remind me of crisp cold winters, Christkindlmarkets with Gluehwein (German mulled wine) and ... Lebkuchen!

 

 

What makes these so special is that they are mostly comprised of nuts. They have a very delicate spice and they are moist and delicious, even after weeks of storing (if they are done right anyway!)

However, they are also very sugary in their original form.  They usually contain a lot of candied peel, sugar in the batter and then they are traditionally either covered in a thin sugar glaze or a thin coat of dark chocolate. And I mean THIN!

 

 

But, not exactly low-carb friendly, even though easily made gluten-free, which I wrote about in my recipe here last year.

So this year, I revisited the low-carb/sugar-free version! And they turned out beautifully! I made a regular version, a low-carb version and a gluten-free version since we have a lot of different allergies and ways of eating to cater for around our parts. I had to actually mark them, because I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference otherwise!

Today I do however want to focus on the sugar-free/  low-carb variety!

So, without further ado, let’s get to it!

 

Low-Carb Elisenlebkuchen

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup erythritol/xylitol, powdered (measure after powdering)
• 1 cup Ideal sugar substitute (could substitute bulk Splenda, Truvia etc. )
• 3 tbsp. polydextrose
• 4 tbsp. monin sugar-free syrup (vanilla)
• peel of 3 large lemons
• peel of 3 large oranges
• peel of 1 large lime

• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp EACH of the following ground spices:

Cinnamon, Cloves, Coriander, Allspice, Nutmeg, Cardamom, guar gum (xanthan works too)

• 1/2 tsp buttery vanilla bakery emulsion or vanilla extract
• 240g Hazelnuts; whole (8.5 oz.) *almonds/pecans/walnuts work too, but it’s not nearly as good :)*
• 240g Hazelnuts; finely ground (8.5 oz.) - or more of the whole ones and you can grind it fine yourself
• 50g Walnuts; coarsely chopped (1.8 oz.)

 

• rice based baking wafers or rice paper (50mm) if you are eating gluten-free, wheat  based Oblaten if you are not. These are somewhat optional but much better with! A word on the Oblaten . Yes, they aren’t low-carb, strictly speaking. However, they only add less than o.5 carbs to your cookie, that it is worth it in my opinion. Not only do they prevent sticking, they keep the moisture in like nothing else and are an integral and traditional part of Elisenlebkuchen.

For the coating:

Sugar-free chocolate or Lindt 85% (or a combination of both) and 1 tsp coconut oil or palm shortening per bar of chocolate. It varies how much you need, depending on how much you use and how large your cookies are. For the above recipe I usually need 3 bars of Lindt and 1 tbsp. of palm shortening, if I cover them all in chocolate.

Traditionally they also come glazed with sugar glaze, which is a whole separate post by itself. And it will be at a later date, where I am comparing a couple of products to make a “sugar” glaze. For now, if you can afford the carbs, use Ideal Confectioner’s Sugar Substitute. It works just like regular powdered sugar and gives great results.

If not, just stick with the chocolate coating!

 

Preparation:

Place the peel of all the fruit, the xylitol, the polydextrose and the sugar-free syrup in a small sauce pan and under constant stirring heat until just boiling. Take the pan off the heat and set aside to cool.

Now, place the whole hazelnuts in the food processor. Start pulsing them until coarsely chopped, then add the sweetener and peel mix and pulse some more until evenly incorporated. Add the emulsion/extract and pulse to incorporate. Add the eggs and pulse some more until you  have a uniform mass.

In a separate bowl, combine the spices, walnuts and hazelnut flour. Add the mix from your food processor and thoroughly combine with a spatula.

 

 

Cover the bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for 24 hrs. It may seem a little runny at first, but it will thicken up quite a bit in the next 24hrs.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 F.

Lay out the baking wafers on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Scoop equal amounts of the nut mix onto the wafers and smooth out with your finger. I find that the easiest way to get the round ones uniform is to use an ice cream scoop. Scoop some nut mixture on the Oblaten and smooth the edges down. Using moist fingers can help as the dough will be a bit sticky.

 

                    

 

Of course, this year I am ahead of this little game, as my father in law made me a so called “Lebkuchenglocke” at my request, which makes this process much easier and faster! You just smear some of the dough into the bell part, place the oblate on top, hold it over your baking tray and twist. The wire on the inside goes around and releases the sticky dough and out plops the cookie! So handy, so efficient! Thank you, Jarvis!

 

          

 

 

If you are not using oblaten/baking wafers, just scoop some dough onto the parchment and press it down  a little with moistened fingers, just like you would on the baking wafers!

 

 

 

If you are using rice paper and don’t feel like cutting out lots of little circles, you can just cut rectangles. It works just as well and it’s  much faster!

 

 

Bake for 12 minutes or until the Lebkuchen are lightly golden brown. It is important that they are not quite done in the middle though. You should still see some moisture in the middle!

 

 

Set them aside to cool a little.  It’s easier to get a thinner coating of chocolate when they are still a little warm.

Melt your chocolate with the coconut oil or palm shortening.

Brush the coating on as thinly as you possibly can, but make sure everything is covered. We want an even coat, without large globs, but not so thin that the cookie underneath peaks through.

 

 

 

If you have used baking wafers, just brush on a thin coat of chocolate coating over the top of the Lebkuchen. Let completely dry for a few hours and store in a cookie tin. None of the coatings should be tacky anymore!

If you didn’t use baking wafers, you will need to dip or brush your entire cookie. First a coat at the bottom, let dry, then a coat on the top of the cookie. This will also seal the moisture and flavors inside, which is essential for these!

Lebkuchen need to sit for a while to develop their prime taste and texture. They need a minimum of 6 days in that cookie tin, so take that into account when planning to make these!

They will however keep for several weeks in a cookie tin and personally I think they taste the best after they have matured for about 1-2 weeks!

 

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Christmas Goodies Round-Up

My children gleefully informed me this morning, that we are only 9 days away from Christmas!

And I thought, “Oh my, only 9 days left? So much to do, so little time!” Now I am mostly done with the whole shopping thing and I have been since the end of October really. I just needed to “top up” my gift shopping list on cyber Monday with a few more things, and I was done with that part.

However, I am way behind on the whole baking thing this year!

Usually we have several cookie baking sessions from the first of advent onwards, right up to Christmas - with the last little batch usually being the cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve!

This year however, I’ve not done much baking. Mostly  because I am catering to something like 4 different diets/ways of eating/preferences on our holidays and not all of them are compatible and then things get complicated. And a lot of these kind of goodies aren’t like my “normal” advent baking, that gets better the longer it sits and you WANT to bake it a month in advance.

So this next week, I’ll be making some goodies and I wanted to share with you some of the bounty that is available to  us in terms of tempting goodies that also keep you on plan!

 

There will be some Homemade Marzipan. I have already made this and it is waiting to be made into some cookies, so stay tuned for that recipe which I will post over the next few days. Here’s a little sneak peak of the cookies in progress:

I also have the Grand Manier ready, which by the way turned out very well. The flavor is wonderful! It is a little late to be making the Grand Manier for Christmas, but you do have time to make the Quick sugar-free Amaretto!

 

How about some Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Star Meringue Cookies),

 

 

or some of Carolyn’s Cranberry Pecan Crescents (Low Carb and Gluten Free,)

 

 

 

or Chocolate Peppermint Cookies,

 

 

or Caramelized Macadamia Pecan Squares,

 

 

Or how about this Gingerbread House from Maria's Nutritious and Delicious Journal,

 

 

or the Italian Chocolate Spice Cookies from Healthy Living How To.

 

 

Also, don’t forget about lovely things like sugar-free candied ginger,  or making your own colored casting/ sanding “sugar” to decorate some cookies.

 

 

If you are looking for a good basic cut-out cookie dough, try this one:

 

 

And of course, we can’t forget delectable truffles for the holidays!

 

 

Or some Coconut Cookies by Jennifer Eloff:

 

 

And I’m thinking of making these for Christmas Eve: Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites

 

 

And look at these little beauties: Honey Nut Cookies,

 

or some Peppermint Patties,

 

 

or these Healthy Magic Cookie Bars.

 

 

Yum! One thing is for sure - there is certainly an abundance of delectable low-carb, sugar-free and gluten-free indulgences out there! There is absolutely no need for deprivation, so treat your family and yourself this holiday season and make some!

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Make Your Own Pressed Sugar Decorations

Pressed sugar decorations you can make yourself! It’s really quite easy once you know how and your possibilities are endless!

I went with snowflakes only this time around, but you  can go with any shape your like. Use candy molds you already have on hand or, if you’re cheap like me, save the plastic inserts from the kid’s advent calendar and use those

These are not just for Christmas either, you can use this method to create your own edible sugar decorations for cakes, cookies, cupcakes or as fancy sugar “cubes” as a special touch for sweetening festive drinks all year round!

 

You will need:

2 cups granulated sugar (finer granules like castor sugar tend to work better for finer details)
4 tsp or so of Water
1/2 tsp Meringue powder
Food coloring (optional)

 

First off, I prefer to use a spray bottle to add the water. I mix up the meringue powder and the sugar in a bowl, then I give it a couple of sprays and work it into the sugar, either by hand or with a fork. Then repeat the sprays until there is the right consistency. I just find that I have more control with a spray bottle and need to work the sugar much less than if I used actual teaspoon drops.

 

The sugar mix needs to feel moistened and pack like damp sand. Just a bit more than brown sugar packs into a cup!

 

Keep mixture covered with a damp cloth as you work.

You can color your decorations. If you just want to tint them you can just use liquid food coloring, but remember to reduce the amount of water you’re using. If you want a really deep color I would recommend powdered food coloring, or the pastes as you would need way too much of the liquid to get a dark shade and then your consistency is off. Tinted sugar makes really pretty molded decorations for cakes and cupcakes.

If you are using advent calendar inserts, cut each mold individually as they are easier to handle that way.

To make sugar molds, pack the sugar mixture into mold as firmly as possible. Pressing everything in really hard and packing it as tight as possible is really key here. Otherwise your sugar creations will fall apart really easily once dried!

{Please ignore my food color stained fingertips/nails }

You might want to brush the mold with some corn starch to prevent sticking if you are going to use the same mold over and over.

You don’t even need anything too fancy. consider plain molds too, I will show you how to “fancy them up” with the help of a tooth pick!

 

Remove excess sugar with a spatula or knife, so the top is even with edge of mold.

Unmold sugar at once by placing a piece of cardboard over the mold.

Then turn the mold and cardboard upside down and lift mold off releasing sugar shape.

 

If you are happy with your shape, you can just dry it as it is. If you want to “fancy them up” a little, you can do so by carefully “pushing” the sugar around with a tooth pick. This part works a whole lot better with the finer granulated sugar!

 

 

Let dry 8-10 hours or in 200 degree oven for 15 - 20 min.

I generally just let them dry overnight. They get pretty sturdy that way!

Around here the air is VERY dry though, so use your judgment if your climate is different!

 

Store in a dry and cool place. Place tissue paper or cardboard between layers of sugar shapes.

 

These would also make really sweet (pun intended) Christmas gifts, packed in cute little cellophane bags – either for the tea or coffee lover in your life or the baker and cake decorator!

Or you can make a little hole with a toothpick, string them onto some clear fishing line and use them as ornaments for any holiday occasion!

You could even go further and decorate larger ones with colored royal icing and a fine tip.

Lots of ways to use these!

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Personalized Christmas Morning Pajamas

A few month ago I came across some very early and therefore very cheap red and green stripy children’s pajamas.

 

I know a lot of people do the matching pajama thing for Christmas morning, but so far we never have, not even for the children. But this year I thought it would be fun!

As cute as they are, especially once they would be on my even cuter 5-year-olds, they seemed to be missing something.

So I got a chance to try iron on vinyl! And what can I say – I’m in love! Oh the possibilities! I especially love the flocked vinyl! It has just that little bit of extra texture to it and it seems a little more sturdy too!

 

Anyway, here’s what I did to the somewhat plain pajamas! Not a whole lot really but now they are personalized and the kids LOVE them! Anna wanted a snowflake on it too, but Max was happy with just his name!

 

It was really easy to do. I used my Silhouette Craft Cutter to cut out the letters and the snowflake. 

Incidentally, if you are waiting to purchase a Silhouette Craft Cutter, NOW might be the time. They are down from $299 to just $174.99 on Amazon right now! That’s the lowest I’ve seen them anywhere so far!

 

But I digress!

I positioned the letters on the shirts while the iron was heating up. Once positioned I pressed the hot iron on the various parts and pressed for about 30 seconds.

After it cooled a bit I peeled off the clear plastic on top and voila! All done!

 

 

Once the Christmas rush is over, I’m going to have to explore the heat transfer vinyl more thoroughly! I can think of so many possibilities to enhance shirts, pillows, fabrics etc

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