Elisen Gingerbread with Sugar Glaze – 6 pieces

Elisen Lebkuchen with sugar glaze, completely without chocolate

Six hand-spread Elisen Lebkuchen from the Fichtelgebirge, coated with a thin sugar glaze and decorated with almonds. This is the variety for those who want to taste the gingerbread itself without having chocolate in the way.

Elisen Lebkuchen Sugar Glaze by Hatzel come in a set of six, weighing 350 grams in a gift bag with a dark red ribbon. The glaze consists of nothing more than powdered sugar and water, applied thinly and topped with almonds. Beneath it, the nutty dough emerges unfiltered, just as Lorenz Hatzel prepared it in Selb in 1928.

The glaze breaks with a fine crunch at the first bite and disappears immediately. What remains is almond, hazelnut, and the warmth of the spices. Bright, soft, spicy.

The variety for gingerbread purists

Those who want to know what an Elisen Lebkuchen really tastes like should reach for this version, as nothing stands between the dough and the tongue here.

Couverture chocolate brings its own roasted bitterness and blankets everything else. The sugar glaze, on the other hand, is a pure seal that retains moisture and has almost no flavor of its own. Thus, the candied lemon and orange peel stand out more clearly, as does the sweetness of the marzipan, which is otherwise masked by chocolate. The baking wafer also becomes more prominent, that paper-thin sheet under every gingerbread that briefly sticks to the tooth when chewed.

Paired with a loose-leaf black tea, it makes for a very tranquil afternoon combination; a glass of mulled wine serves more as a contrast. Stored in a cool, sealed place, the gingerbread remains soft for weeks, as the glaze protects it from drying out.

Almonds on top and marzipan inside

The almonds on top of the glaze are not just for decoration; they provide the bite that the soft mass underneath lacks.

The dough itself contains marzipan—which is simply almonds and sugar—along with a large quantity of ground hazelnuts. This combination makes the mass dense and heavy, so a single gingerbread is significantly more filling than its size might suggest. According to the Hatzels, more than a third of the dough consists of sun-ripened hazelnuts and almonds, and you can taste it in every gram.

Flour plays almost no role here; it only holds together what the nuts support on their own. This is exactly how you recognize a true Elisen Lebkuchen, as lesser versions stretch the dough with grain and lose their juiciness in the process.

From September to Christmas, then it’s over

Elisen Lebkuchen are not a year-round pastry, and this one is no exception.

The bakery begins its work every year in September, when the first deliveries leave the house, and stops with the end of the Christmas season. In spring and summer, the hand-spreading machine stands still, which is why these gingerbreads are not available from us year-round either. What is produced in a season depends on the number of hands in the bakery and not on the speed of a machine.

This explains the wait in summer and the rush during Advent. If you find yourself wanting chocolate after all, you can also find the dark and mixed varieties in the Hatzel assortment, along with small confectionary pieces for your cookie tin.