Braune Lebkuchen
brown ginberbread cookie

1 .Cream sugar and butter or shortening. 2. Stir in egg and molasses, and orange peel.

3 . Sift together the flour, soda, Bakers Ammonia and spices.
4 . Combine dry ingredients alternately with milk to molasses mixture.

5. Add more flour if neccesary to get a nice stiff dough that holds together and not real sticky.

6. Now let the dough age in a ziplock bag or a plastic container. My grandma (Oma) let it sit in a bowl on a high shelf covered with a towel for 6 weeks. Now let's make some cookies.

Pre Heat oven to 325 degrees
Roll out the dough and cut into a rectangle. I often use a ruler.

I like the thickness to be about 1/4 inch like that of a nickel.

Using the fluted pastry wheel I cut the dough into rectangles.

You can use several different tools to lift the cookies without mangling them. I like this dough scraper.

Lift them onto a greased baking sheet.

Keep a bit of spacing between the cookies and brush with egg wash.

After I brush with an egg wash.

I top them with an almond or a sliver of Marachino cherry

or sometimes both.

Bake the cookies at 325 degrees for 20- 25 minutes until lightly browned.

Let cool.

Store the cookies in a cookie tin or plastic storage container.
. They improve with age.

They firm up a bit and are very good to serve with coffee or tea.