How to Make Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen is a German biscuit-type treat thats meant to sort of resemble gingerbread (but FAAAARRRR better). Its a typical German Christmas biscuit and is a fantastic and really easy way to make some form of festive bakes goods :)

Plus it makes your house smell AMAZING!

Ok so what you will need is...

250g  (or 2 cups if you don't have scales) plain flour
85g (6 tbsp) ground almonds
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of cloves
pinch of grated nutmeg
pinch of black pepper
200ml (13 tbsp) clear honey
85g (6 tbsp) butter
1 lemons grated zest
100g (10 1/2 tbsp) icing sugar
1 egg white, beaten

utensil-wise you will need...

a wooden spoon/spatula
tablespoon
teaspoon
a small grater/zester
2 medium sized bpwls (make sure one is glass as this will be heated)
a saucepan that allows the glass bowl to sit on top like this....

Set your oven to 180C. That's gas mark 4 and if you have a fan assisted oven set it to 160C

Okay, so put the flour, ground almonds, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, cloves, grated nutmeg and pepper into one of the bowls and mix them about so they're distributed evenly.

Place the butter and honey into the GLASS bowl. Next put water into the saucepan, however only fill half way (you don't want to butter and honey to burn) and allow to boil on a medium/low heat. Once slightly bubbling, put the glass bowl on top of the saucepan and mix until all the butter and honey has melted together and has created a runny golden liquid.

Add the melted honey and butter to the dry ingredients and stir until it creates a solid dough like this...

Now leave to cool for about 10 minutes as it will still be warm from the melted butter and honey. Once cooled, roll the dough into about 15/20 balls and flatten slightly.

Place on a greased baking tray (i used that spray oil stuff and it worked really well)

Then bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. The biscuits should be golden brown once cooked. Set aside to cool as they will need to be relatively cold for the icing.

Measure the icing into a bowl. So now separate the white from the yolk and discard the yolk. Beat the egg white until frothy.

Add the egg to the icing sugar and add 1 tablespoon of water.

Mix together until it has a smooth and runny consistency...

So now your biscuits are cooler and your icing is ready dip each biscuit into the icing and set aside on a tray or on a plate to dry.

It will only have a light coating of icing on it, but don't worry! The icing is REALLY sweet so if it had been any thicker it would take away the taste of the actual Lebkuchen.

These make great gifts when wrapped in tissue paper or plastic wrapping and laced in a fancy gift bag :)

Hope you enjoy making these as much as I do.

Fancy Glittery Festive-style nails ^.^

Okay so i realise that it has been an AGE since i posted however i have been a very busy lass, getting a new job and generally being foolish outwith the internet. I have now amended my ways and i am back on track ladies and gents! Yessir!

So today im going to do a step my step guide on how to do these awesome nails. I reckon they look awesome and are a great alternative to a french manicure and even if you have a shaky hand, they still look decent and sorta professional (well i think so anyway). Please excuse the shoddy looking hands, my old book shop job done that to me. Sadface.

RIGHT!! okay! So you can use any colour you want for the top part of the nails (i suppose you could any two colours anyway!) however i have opted to go for a nude base (Bourjois So Laque in #28 "Rose Lounge"), a red base (Nails Inc in "Victoria and Albert") and a red glitter varnish (Barry M in #150) just to add a bit extra to it. I also finished it off with a clear top coat (Bourjois Fixant Brilliant).

I started off using the nude colour first all over my nails. I used two coats as to give a lovely salon-style healthy look to my nails. Make sure to let each coat dry before applying the next as you dont want horrible bumpy nails! If you're in a rush, a good tip is to dip nails in a sink of cold water as this helps the varnish set quicker.

I then went on to use the plain red varnish. I always start on my left hand as its easier to do (im right handed). So start at the left hand side of your nail (or right, whatever you fancy!) and paint outwards along the length. Dragging the brush down diagonally won't work properly and will only make it a bit messier looking. With each stroke as you work across the nail, do the strokes a bit longer so you achieve a diagonal look on the nail. You will probably need two to three coats for this, depending on the quality of nail varnish and colour. Make sure this dries properly. (Make sure that all the diagonals go the same way on each hand!)

If you're using the glitter on top like i have, repeat the same process as you did for the coloured nail varnish. It's a bit easier as you have the block colour to use as a guide. Again i would use two to three coats for this just to build up the glitter effect and make it more noticeable.

Now if you're using the Barry M Glitter nail varnish like i did, you'll find that once dries it looks a bit duller than what it does when wet. This does not make a good look! So the best way to solve this problem (and also make sure the fab work you done doesn't chip as much) is apply a top coat. I used two coats of this and noticed it really brought out the glitter. It also blends the different varnishes together and creates a salon-style look.

To prevent your nail varnish from chipping as much and to keep it a bit longer, i would apply a coat of the clear top coat each day for a few days just to keep the professional look of it.

So there you go, jobs a good 'un! I hope this had made sense and it works as successfully for everyone :) Also upload photos or tweet them to me @julietronica

:)

An Introduction...

So i've been meaning to start a blog for ages just so i cant rant/swoon/both at something and obviously voice my (somewhat) interesting opinions! Also due to the fact i've felt a bit fluey today i decided to seize the moment and what-not.

I am a Scottish lass born and raised and enjoy learning about Scottish heritage and also Gaelic whenever i get the chance. I always picture Scots heritage as being all whimsical and interesting, but sometimes it's a bit boring. However it's always something to amaze people with pointless facts! I've always been quite gutted the fact i don't have a Scottish surname like "MacGregor" or "MacMullen" or something like that. Mines is "Jack". How terribly boring! Apparently it's from the medieval name for "John" and was very common in the Middle Ages and was a slang word for "man". Therefore i am a man?? How...interesting...

The website where i found the definition has a picture from some victorian book of "Jack and the Beanstalk" - how original!

See? Oddness!

Anyhoo! Before i go off on a tangent about Jack and the Beanstalk, i'll remind myself not to!


I've slowly realized the past couple of days that Christmas is just over a month and a half away! It terrifies me to think that 2011 is nearly over. However, i am a fan of Christmas! I used to hate it until about 2/3 years ago and it hit me like a brick to the face. All of a sudden i was a Christmas convert. I love making decorations, baking lots of stodgy cakes and biscuits, hanging lights everywhere and and all the while listening to the glorious sounds of my Christmas CD. I enjoy the run up to Christmas more than anything, nothing to do with the suspense of unwrapping presents - to be honest i don't really care for the whole present debacle. I love going around the German Christmas market in Edinburgh and there's a chill in the air, or when it's snowing outside on Christmas Eve and everyone is drinking mulled wine at the small village pub and eating mince pies. Yes, yes i know it's all very twee and makes you kind of want to throw yourself off a bridge and impale yourself on a Christmas tree, however it's really only the time of year i enjoy. Christmas and Hogmanay. It's time for spending with your family and appreciating what you have and just generally getting a bit too merry and eating half the contents of the house (furniture et al). I've never been a fan of my birthday (who is? An annual reminder that you're getting older and are one step closer to wrinkles and grey hair) and seasons such like summer has never really appealed to me. There's always something comforting about winter, whether its being inside with a cup of tea, making some soup or going for a walk in the cold air wearing wellies and ten pairs of socks. Also i always think the light is always nicer for taking photographs. The photo below was taken while i was snowed in and was off work for about two weeks. Literally half of Scotland just failed at modern life! It was crazy!

This photograph was actually taken by me, using my iPhone (which i detest most of the time), however i love having a camera in my phone as you never know when you can take a fantastic photo! I'm a qualified photographer and although i don't work as one anymore (due to this whole recession thing), taking photographs is part of my day-to-day life.