It’s Christmas, which means my recipe for German Christmas biscuits – Lebküchen, or gingerbread – is getting another run.

As much as I love them, they belong to Christmas and I never make them any other time. This recipe has been through a lot of tinkering, and it’s working really well, though I can never help continuing to tinker.

Here is a link to my post with the recipe for these biscuits: christmas in a biscuit

As always, this time I’ve done a variation. I’ve put a chocolate topping on them, and this is largely in honour of my very, very favourite biscuits all all – Spitzküchen, which are really just a lovely soft Lebküchen coated in chocolate and shaped in a triangle. I get them from Weiser’s Bakery in Geelong, which is the only place I know of that has any that are locally made and not imported (the imported ones that are similar are even more expensive, and I don’t think as good). But I keep trying to make a good version of my own, but haven’t achieved it yet. I have the flavour, but not the texture.

For my Lebküchen t his time, I added some of the lightly candied ginger I have, which I blitzed to a paste and mixed through, which added a lovely extra touch of ginger. I also added a touch more baking soda, but I don’t know that it made any real difference.

For the topping, I used a good quality dark chocolate with a little finely chopped candied orange (left over from making the biscuits) with a little sugar mixed through it.

This year they are perhaps a little chewier (and gingerbreads should be a little chewy) than usual, but the taste is wonderful.

And the orange specked chocolate topping is definitely a keeper.