Lebkuchen and the
winter holidays go together like
bread and butter. For those that don't know, Lebkuchen is German
gingerbread. You can't build little houses out of it, as it's much softer than the cookie-like gingerbread we have here in the states. In
Europe and especially
Germany and
Austria, they start selling all kinds of Lebkuchen in October. It comes in all kinds of shapes, such as bells,
Christmas trees, and most commonly, palm-sized circles. You can get them coated in chocolate, glazed with sugar, filled with jam,
chock full o'nuts, or many other ways. My personal favorite are the round ones coated in
milk chocolate with the egg-white crisp at the bottom. Before baking the gingerbread, they put whipped egg-whites at the bottom of the pan and when they come out of the oven the gingerbread has this white crispy disk on it's bottom. It gives it a nice little
crunch.
One can find Lebkuchen outside of Europe pretty easily. Just go into any German deli or European market around the holidays and I'm sure they'll have some. I suggest eating them with a great big mug of hot cocoa.