Ingredients:

Oven: 350 degrees

Basic Ingredients:

2 ½ C. brown sugar
3 large eggs or 4 medium eggs, beaten
1/4 lb. chopped citron
1 ½ C. chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
3 C. flour
¼ tsp. soda (or 2 tsp. baking powder)

Some substitutions and added goodies.

Instead of Citron, you can use candied orange peel and/or lemon peel.

Directions:

1.Go here to make candied orange peel. I used the peel of 2 oranges. and 1 lemon.
I am not a big fan of the citron that you buy chopped up in cartons so I substitute a some
lemon peel and orange peel.

One of the tricks is I boil the peel in 1 cup of water with 1/2 cup sugar and just simmer it down to a syrup.
Then blend in the syrup and orange peel.

2. II like to grind my own spices. So adding to the cinnamon and cloves I added;
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Anise
1 tablespoon ground Ginger
(I could have used fresh ginger but I didn't have it on hand)

3. I sifted the spices with the flour, brown sugar, baking powder (or baking soda)
This is a good idea because it gets the lumps out of the brown sugar.

4. Instead of using just brown sugar to sweeten the Lebkuchen I use 4 items;
1 and 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
the orange peel and syrup I boiled it in.

the rest of my wet ingredients;
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 medium eggs

5. In a separate bowl add the honey and molasses then blend in the eggs,
then add the candied orange peel and syrup, Next blend in the flour 1 cup at a time
till there is a nice smooth batter.

6. Now You can decide to add the walnuts or almonds. I recommend it highly. The bread, spices
and nuts work together perfect! I added chopped walnuts.

7. Blend them into the batter and then fill a 9 x 13 baking dish. If you have a smaller one like I did, it makes
it a thicker "bread-cake".

8. For a thinner Lebkuchen bake it for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.
For a thicker one I let it go 45 minutes to an hour, turning it down to
325 degrees after 30 minutes.

9. Let it cool for an hour and then ice I made an icing of;
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice.