Chocolate Dipped Lebkuchen Caramels

For some time now I have been gawking at other blogger’s gorgeous caramels. Caramel is one of my favorite flavors. I also love the flavors of lebkuchen. So I married them and dressed them in Tiffany blue for a Christmas wedding.

These are outstanding. My only regret is that I didn’t make a bigger batch.

Here is my German Holiday spin.

1) I used a recipe for Sea Salt Caramels from Cookin’ Canuck. Click HERE for the recipe. The recipe and instructions were perfect. I had no problems with it and I am the first to admit I am among the candy making challenged.

2) For these lebkuken caramels I omitted the sea salt and added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste and 2 teaspoons of lebkuken spice. I added these last. Mixing both ingredients in the last ten minutes of cooking the caramel.

3) In Germany we have these ready mixed lebkuchen spices.

The packet says the ingredients are: cinnamon, orange zest, coriander, lemon zest, star anise, fennel, mace, clove and cardamom.

A recipe for mixing your own can be found HERE. Scroll to bottom of recipe for the spice mix.

Suggestions for substituting other spice mixes like mixing Chinese 5 spice powder and with either apple or pumpkin pie spice are HERE