Masala Chai Lebkuchen with Jaggery and Pistachio (German × Indian)

Method

1. Grind the tea leaves to a fine powder in a mortar or spice grinder. In a large bowl, mix the ground almonds, flour, baking powder, ground tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves and black pepper until evenly combined.

   Add in this stepGround almonds 80 gPlain (all-purpose) flour 20 gBaking powder 2 pinchBlack tea leaves (from tea bags) 1 tspGround cinnamon 1 tspGround ginger ½ tspGround cardamom ½ tspGround cloves 1 pinchGround black pepper 1 pinch

2. Grate the jaggery finely. In another bowl, beat the egg, jaggery and honey with an electric mixer for 4 min until thick, foamy and caramel-coloured; a few tiny grains are fine. For half an egg, beat one and use half.

   Add in this stepEgg 1Jaggery (or dark brown sugar) 50 gHoney 2 tsp

3. Fold in the dry mixture with a spatula until there are no dry pockets, then cover and chill for 1 h so the spices bloom and the dough firms up.

4. Preheat the oven to 170 °C (150 °C fan) and line a tray with baking paper. With wet hands, shape the dough into 8 balls, flatten them into 6 cm discs about 1 cm thick and space them 3 cm apart.

   oven

5. Bake in the oven on the middle shelf for 14 min. The jaggery makes them colour faster than classic lebkuchen, so take them out when the edges are browned but the centres are still soft. After 5 minutes, move them to a wire rack.

   oven

6. Mix the icing sugar with the cardamom for the icing and stir in the milk little by little to make a thick icing. Drizzle it in zigzags over the warm cookies, scatter the chopped pistachios straight away and leave for 30 min to set.

   Add in this stepIcing (powdered) sugar 40 gMilk 2 tspGround cardamom (for the icing) 1 pinchUnsalted pistachios, chopped 10 g