Elisen Gingerbread mixed - 6 pieces

Assorted Elisen Lebkuchen from a Fichtelgebirge bakery

Hatzel’s assorted Elisen Lebkuchen are six hand-spread wafer gingerbreads in a gift bag: two glazed with sugar, two coated in dark chocolate, and two in milk chocolate. More than a third of the dough consists of hazelnuts and almonds, with almost no flour added—this is not mass-produced factory fare.

Assorted Elisen Lebkuchen come in a set of six, weighing 350 grams in total, packed in a dark red gift bag. They are spread onto baking wafers at the Hatzel gingerbread bakery in Selb, on the edge of the Fichtelgebirge mountains. "Elisen" is the finest grade of wafer gingerbread, a designation reserved exclusively for those made with more nuts than flour in the dough.

Break one in half, and you’ll see the dense, moist mixture of ground nuts, with hardly any crumbs, interspersed with amber-colored slivers of candied lemon and orange peel. The aroma hits you first, even before you take a bite—cinnamon, warm almond, and a hint of orange zest. Soft, succulent, and spicy.

Sugar glaze, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate in the same bag

Two pieces feature a delicate sugar glaze topped with almonds, two are covered in fine-melting dark chocolate, and two in the finest milk chocolate.

There is something for everyone around the gingerbread platter. Some consider the plain sugar glaze to be the classic standard, others swear by dark chocolate—and the milk chocolate reconciles both camps in the end. At room temperature, the spice profile unfolds; if kept cold in the pantry, it remains more contained.

The gingerbread pairs just as well with a strong black tea from our tea selection as it does with a glass of mulled wine in the late afternoon. Stored in a cool, dry place, it even continues to mature over the weeks as the spices slowly infuse the nut base.

The sticky dough is applied to the wafer by hand

The dough is stirred in a copper kettle and spread using a manual machine that has been in use for generations—whisks, wooden spoons, and rolling pins lie alongside.

Elisen dough is tough and sticky because there is almost no flour to hold it together. The ground nuts, marzipan, and egg whites do the work alone. The more nuts in the dough, the harder it is to spread—and the juicier the gingerbread remains over the weeks.

That is why the wafer—that ultra-thin sheet made of wheat flour, water, and starch—is necessary. It has been placed under gingerbread since monastery times, serving to lift it off the baking sheet in the first place. It is leavened with hartshorn salt, the traditional leavening agent of gingerbread bakers, which allows the flat cake to rise without becoming airy. The brothers keep their family spice blend to themselves; you can taste the cinnamon, but you are left to guess the rest.

Why an Elisen Lebkuchen stays soft

A gingerbread that breaks instead of yielding after two weeks has too much flour and too few nuts in the dough.

Here, the opposite is true. The ground almonds and hazelnuts slowly release their oils into the mixture, and because there is almost no grain to interfere, it retains that moisture. Sorbitol syrup provides a helping hand; this humectant has long had a permanent place in gingerbread baking, ensuring that nothing dries out.

If you would like to sample all the varieties, you can find all Hatzel Elisen Lebkuchen in our shop—the dark chocolate and sugar-glazed versions are also available individually, along with small confectionary treats for in-between.