This is remarkable similar to my family's Lebkuchen recipe. So I will spare you my typical scorn and pity for inferior recipes. :-) Most of the ingredients are nearly the same, but I make a cooked glaze, just sugar and water cooked until a thread occurs, and it is wonderfully thin and crisp on the soft and dense cookie. I also don't add candied ginger, just some candied lemon peel and finely ground almond and roll and cut out oblongs. Also, I heat the honey and molasses in the microwave to boiling. Much quicker and easier. I love these cookies more than any other, as does most everyone who eats one, but let me tell you, they are a royal pain to make. The dough is difficult and has to be kept cold, so it's in and out of the fridge and the fridge ends up covered in sticky fingerprints. I chill the cookies on the sheets for a while before baking, so I am in and out of the garage a dozen times. The icing has to be kept at just the right temperature. The cookies will burn if you overbake them even for a few second. These are the only Christmas cookies that make me cuss. I am actually contemplating making things easier on myself and blending your recipe with mine to see what happens. Oh, and the apple or orange in the tin is absolutely mandatory. They are rock hard and not at all tasty when first baked. Not only does the fruit soften the cookies, it adds yet another layer of flavor. I change out the fruit every 3 or 4 days and it doesn't go bad, but I don't let it touch any cookies or they can get a soggy spot where it touched. The soggy spot goes away after a day or so, but you wouldn't want to serve that cookie to someone before it went away.

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