• In a large saucepan, gently heat the butter, sugar and honey until melted. Give an occasional stir. Remove from the heat.
  75 g unsalted butter, 75 g dark muscovado sugar, 100 g honey
• Add the cocoa, spices, salt and lemon zest and stir well.
  1 tsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground allspice, ¼ tsp ground cloves, ¼ tsp fresh nutmeg, 1 pinch fine sea or rock salt, 1 lemon
• Beat in the egg.
  1 medium egg
• Add the ground almonds along with the rest of the dry ingredients. You may need to sieve the flour etc first if lumpy.
  225 g wholemeal spelt flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda, 75 g ground almonds
• Work the dry ingredients into the wet with a wooden spoon or spatula until you have a ball of dough.
• Cover and leave in a cool place to firm up for at least an hour, but overnight is best. The dough is quite sticky, so it needs time to rest in order to roll it out. This also gives the flavours a chance to develop.
• When the dough is firm enough, set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
• As the dough is still likely to be a bit sticky, roll it out between two sheets of baking paper. It should be quite thick, 1 cm or thereabouts is perfect.
• Stamp out stars or any other shapes with a cookie cutter. Use a well floured cutter to do this or it might be hard to remove the shapes.
• Gather the offcuts together and roll again. Repeat until you've used all of the dough.
• Alternatively, roll large walnut-sized pieces into balls between the palms of your hands, then flatten them into rounds of the same height.
• Arrange the lebkuchen well apart on lined baking sheets. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until just starting to brown. Be careful not to over bake as I did with my first batch. The biscuits are meant to be soft, not crunchy.
• Remove from the oven and transfer the biscuits to a wire rack.

Glaze

• Whilst the lebkuchen are baking, mix enough lemon juice into the icing sugar to make a runny glaze. Use less if you want a thicker icing.
  50 g icing sugar, 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
• As soon as the biscuits have been transferred to a wire rack and whilst still warm, brush the top of each one with the glaze.
• Leave the lebkuchen to cool and the glaze to dry, then store in an airtight container where they'll keep for a couple of weeks.