Vegan Lebkuchen Soft Spiced Cookies Filled with Apricot Jam

1. Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, Lebkuchen spice mix and cinnamon.

2. Melt the margarine and sugar beet syrup in a saucepan, and stir in the sugar until it has completely dissolved. Stir in the apricot jam, and leave the mixture to cool a little. Stir in the flour mixture gradually until you have a sticky dough. Leave the dough to cool for 5 minutes, and then knead by hand. Wrap in cling film, and leave to rest overnight in the fridge.

3. After chilling, preheat your oven to 175 °C (345°F) upper and lower heat, and dust your work surface with flour.

4. Roll out the dough until it is approx. 0.5cm thick, and cut out different shapes with cookie cutters. Lay the Lebkuchen cookies out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Make sure they have enough space between them.

5. Brush a dollop of apricot jam into the middle of each unbaked cookie, and place another cookie on top of each. Press the edges down well so that the filling doesn’t run out.

6. Bake for around 10 minutes, then place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

7. If desired, brush the Lebkuchen cookies with various glazes, and decorate them. We brushed some of ours with whipped aquafaba, and used chopped pistachios as a topping. For the second glaze we mixed icing sugar, water and soy drink, and then decorated with flaked almonds. For the third, we melted the dark chocolate couverture and drizzled it over the Lebkuchen.

8. Keep in an airtight container so that the Lebkuchen cookies don’t dry out.