Elisen Lebkuchen (Geman "Gingerbread")

I got this recipe a few years ago, but never tried it until this weekend.  My dad was humming and hawing over Skype that Oma made Elisen Lebkuchen and they were sooo good.  I asked for the recipe and it turned out to be the one I must have asked for a few years ago... Feeling guilty, I roped one of my teenagers and her friend into a baking session.
The original recipe is in German and has "sehr gut" scribbled on it.  And indeed it is "sehr gut", very good.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 150g butter
• 250g Zucker
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp cacao
• 1/2 tsp ground gloves
• 200g lemon peel and 200g orange peel - I used 400g finely chopped apricots and prunes)
• 300g ground hazelnuts
• 200g sultanas, soaked in water - I used cranberries
• 1/4 l milk
• 500g flour
• 2 tblsp baking powder
• 4 drops bitter mandel oil - you can find this in European Deli's - Dr. Oetker brand)
• Back Oblaten (7cm circumference) - this is edible paper and you can also find this at an European Deli
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• juice of 1 lemon

Cream butter, sugar and eggs.  Add spices, orange and lemon peel, hazelnuts, sultanas and flour.  Add milk last.  Spread doug about 1cm thick onto Backoblaten.    Place on cookie sheets.
Bake for 20min  at 200 degrees Celsius (180 degrees in a convection oven).
Immediately after baking, glaze with mixture made from icing sugar and lemon juice.  Yields 4 baking sheets

German Stollen

4 Stollen (double recipe)

Stollen is a traditional German Christmas bread full of nuts, candied fruit and raisins with a marzipan filling.  Most recipes use yeast, mine calls for Quark and baking powder and I replaced the candied fruits and raisins with dried cranberries.

Ingredients:

• 500g flour
• 1tblsp baking powder
• 275g unsalted butter
• 200g sugar
• a few drops vanilla extract or a packet of vanilla sugar
• pinch salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tblsp rum
• grated fresh lemon peel
• 1/4 tsp cardamom and nutmeg
• 250g quark (you can substitute with Greek yoghurt)
• 50g pistachios
• 100g walnut pieces
• 100g dried cranberries
• 125g marzipan
• 2 tsp icing sugar

Mix flour and 175g soft butter, add eggs, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, salt, eggs, rum, lemon peel, quark, nuts and cranberries and mix to a dough ball.  Gently roll dough out to form an oval.  With the marzipan form a log and place on dough.  fold dough over to make a loaf.

Bake at 175C in preheated oven for 1 hours (or if you are making two smaller loafs, bake 40min).  Remove from oven and immediately brush with remaining butter and sprinkle with icing sugar.  Let cool completely.  Can be eaten fresh or wrapped in foil and stored for a week.