Thankful for our Cookie-Making Tradition
We have a long-standing cookie-making tradition at Thanksgiving. It’s been going on for decades, and I have shared it before. After all, it’s tradition!
Both daughters and their families (4 grandkids) will be with us this Thanksgiving and for cookie-making.
Making Honey Lebkuchen has been a tradition on the maternal side of my wife’s family for several generations, and we started our own tradition when we first started dating. Other family members make them as well but ours are the best!
We make the cookies the Friday after Thanksgiving and depending on the size, and varying shapes with grandkids involved, there are usually about 15 dozen.
I would estimate we’ve made more than 8000 Honey Lebkucken since our tradition began, not including other cookies we make for the holidays. I shudder to think how many hundreds I’ve consumed over the years!
A big part of the fun of making these cookies, in addition to eating them and being with family, is sharing with others.
It’s quite a process from start to finish. I normally fix the batter on Wednesday rather than trying to squeeze it in with all the Thanksgiving preparations. While much of the recipe is pretty easy, it’s pretty labor-intensive when you have to stir in 12 or so cups of flour into the mixture of honey, brown and granulated sugar, and butter. I’ve broken 2 wooden spoons over the years of stirring! Here's the mixture ready to add the flour.
Once the dough is rolled out it’s traditionally cut into diamond shapes – my wife normally does this. But when grandkids are around some of that tradition flies out the window, as holiday cookie cutter shapes tend to be more popular. Each cookie gets 1 blanched almond before baking although the grandkids often add more. The cookies are painted with a glaze of powdered sugar, milk, and lemon extract once they are baked.
The Lebkuchen are stored in canisters to season and soften with a piece of bread. The cardamom, candied citron, and honey lend a special flavor over time, but no one waits long before testing them out. While it’s nice to have some for Christmas Day and later, they don’t always last that long between us eating them and sharing with others.
We have a few other holiday traditions but this is one I’m particularly thankful for due to family involvement. And I enjoy creating something to share with family and friends. On a few occasions when our family wasn’t around we’ve had friends over to make them as it’s a lot of work for just 2 people! And it’s more fun with others sharing the experience. I can’t imagine the holidays without this family tradition year after year. I hope it continues for a long time, and perhaps our kids will someday take it on as well as we did years ago.
I’m always thankful for this special tradition and the joy of having our family around during the Thanksgiving holiday.
This is my 4th entry for the November Gratitude Challenge. And thank you, Debe Maxwell, CRS, for hosting. It’s been fun to read all the gratitude posts.
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