Saturday 19 November 2016

Lambertz Milk Chocolate Lebkuchen Hearts (Waitrose)

I'm not shy about my adoration for Germany's Christmas treats; I believe that their use of spice is cleverly balanced, brave and quite frankly unsurpassable. Last year I reviewed ASDA's lebkuchen iced starsWeisse's Pfeffernüsse, Bahlsen's Zimtsterne, Lidl's marzipan stollen as well as Bahlsen's Poppy Seed Stollen, and this year I'm on a quest to discover the best on the market. 

Today's review is of Lambertz's apricot filled Lebkuchen hearts: the hearts were a favourite Christmas treat as a child, my grandmother was always dependable for a healthy supply of them too and I looked forward to gorging on them after school. I say gorge because it felt impossible to stop at one or two (I reckon they're even more moreish than Jaffa cakes) so I really hoped that Lambertz' version would live up to my high expectations. I bought the 150g bag from Waitrose for £1.

Gingerbread hearts with apricot fruit filling (28%), coated with milk chocolate (23%) and dark chocolate decoration (3%).

Now to some, the combination of gingerbread, chocolate and apricot might sound like an utterly absurd idea. Even to me it sounds like it shouldn't work, but it really does (hence why I thought to spread M&S' new gingerbread teacakes with apricot jam). 

The hearts weren't exactly perfectly formed, but I preferred the almost homemade look. The milk and dark chocolate coating was ample too, with none of the gingerbread peaking through (as often happens with the iced stars). I could smell a subtle gingery warmth, but only when I brought the hearts to my mouth pre-munch. 


For anyone who's not had Lebkuchen before (seriously you're missing out), the texture between varieties and brands can vary quite dramatically. Even in a single bag of ASDA's stars I've found that some have been very firm, whilst others have been soft and cake-like. The Lambertz hearts leaned towards the latter texture, with a lovely fluffiness that provided very little resistance when biting into. The spice was very mild though, too much so for my liking. The ginger was almost completely lost against the delectable chocolate and apricot jam. Yes, you heard correctly, the chocolate was super! The quality was much better than one might expect for a biscuit/cake covering and I'm sure I'd have been quite happy to enjoy a bar of the chocolate that Lambertz have used here. As for the jam, it was gooey, sweet and in abundance -exactly what I hoped for. 


9/10

What do you think are the best German (or continental) Christmas treats? I'd love to know, so please do leave me a comment!

5 comments:

  1. I love these, but due to having family living in Holland I was spoilt by authentic German (they live near the border) festive treats as a little person and nothing we get over here can quite compare- I think I might have childhood memory bias though. I've been stocking up on lebkuchen, it needs to be a year round thing! xx

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    1. It needs to be! It's very easy to make though, and Tesco stock a similar looking polish version year round!

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  2. Lambertz are from Germany, I've been to their factory in Aachen when I visited! So these should be quite authentic..

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    1. Wow, I bet that was quite something, I hope you got your fill of treats whilst there!

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    2. Yes and there was a Lindt factory outlet just nearby.. loads of bargain yummy treats in the area!

      https://localwiki.org/aachen/Lambertz

      You guys should definitely drop by if you happen to be planning a holiday around Europe, ideally before Brexit haha,

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