Läckerli are a type of lebkuchen baked as a sheet biscuit. There are many words for these biscuits – Läckerlin, Läckerli, Läggerli, Leckerly, Leckerli, and there are many differing versions found in many Swiss cantons, including some made of marzipan. Basler Läckerli originate from the Swiss city of Basel, and are small, rectangular lebkuchen with a fine icing. They are rich with honey, almonds, hazelnuts, spices, lemon and orange peel, which are coarsely chopped. The Läckerli are baked as one large slab, and then cut into rectangular pieces.

One narrative says that Basler Leckerli were created at the time of the Council of Basel (1431-1449), a general council of the Roman Catholic Church held in Basel. There were many church dignitaries who would visit Basel so bakers tried to outdo each other with their wares. Traditional “lebkuchen” were not considered good enough, so the Basel Lebkücher came up with a new treat – they added almonds, orange peel, and lemon peel into their lebkuchen.

Early recipes for Basler Läckerli can be found in the classic 19th century book Neues Berner Kochbuch. The 1843 edition of the book written by Lina Rytz has a recipe on page p.320-321, and a second one on page 325. The main issue with some of these older recipes is that they produce a massive amount of dough – over 5kg worth. But these recipes were not designed for the home cook. There are a number of good modern recipes for Basler Läckerli, most of which are very similar.

This recipe is adapted from the book Guetzle mit Betty Bossi, makes one baking sheet of Läckerli, and is actually quite easy to make. There are a number of companies which produce Basler Läckerli, such as Läckerli Huus, making it a very popular Swiss biscuit.

I N G R E D I E N T S

225g honey
150g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
100g candied orange and lemon peel (finely chopped)
100g almonds, coarsely chopped
1/2 lemon, zested
50ml kirsch
300g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

① Place the honey, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg into a pan, and gently warm and stir until the sugar has dissolved, and the ingredients are well mixed. Remove from the heat.

② Place the candied orange and lemon peel, almonds, and lemon zest in a bowl, and combine. Add the warm honey liquid, and kirsch to the bowl and combine.

③ Mix the flour and baking powder into the honey-almond-citrus mixture to form a dough. Roll out the dough, 5-6mm thick, into a rectangular shape directly onto a parchment lined baking sheet (use a piece of parchment on the top to making the rolling easier).

④ Bake in an oven preheated to 390ºF (200ºC) for 15-20 minutes, or until the top of the Läckerli is golden brown.

⑤ Remove from the oven, and brush on the glasur while the baked Läckerli is still warm. The glasur is made by mixing 75g of icing sugar with 2 tbsp of kirsch. The residual heat in the biscuit will help give the Läckerli its traditional mottled icing appearance.

⑥ Trim the hard edges, and form into 5×4cm rectangles.

Notes:

⚙︎ Some recipes call for leaving the Läckerli out at room temperature overnight before baking.
⚙︎ Instead of mixing the icing sugar with kirsch, mix it with water, and cook it briefly in a saucepan to form a syrup.