It’s Easy to Make Your Own Homemade Gingerbread Spice Mix!
Looking to make a delicious gingerbread recipe but short on gingerbread spice? You can absolutely make your own homemade gingerbread spice mix!
German gingerbread spice – or Lebkuchengewürz as it is called in German – is a classic spice blend used to make gingerbread (Lebkuchen).
With fragrant spices like anise, cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves, gingerbread spice makes your house smell like the holidays.
Of course, there are many different recipes using gingerbread spice so it’s handy to have some spice on hand. And while you can buy gingerbread spice online or in stores, you can also just make it yourself.
The trickiest part to making your own gingerbread spice blend is grinding the various spices if you didn’t buy the ground versions.
We usually use a small coffee bean grinder as a spice grinder and it workss wonderfully. You can also manually grind seeds (anise, cardamom, etc) with a mortar and pestle.
Just be sure to clean it out soon after because some spices – those darn cloves – can stain due to their rich color and natural oils.
How to Make Homemade Gingerbread Spice – Step by Step
If you’re keen to make your own gingerbread spice mix, you can follow the quick recipe card down below.
In case you’re a visual learner, you can check out the process photos here and follow along with our homemade gingerbread spice recipe!
Start by gathering all the spices you’ll need – cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, all spice, anise seeds, and ginger (optional).
Then grind the spices that are not in a powder consistency yet.
We started with the anise seeds and ground a little bit more than required for this recipe because we needed ground anise for our German anise cookies.
Remove the ground spice, clean the coffee/spice grinder and then grind the next spice – in our case cloves. Be careful because they can really stain!
We also needed to grind the cardamom. You can buy already ground cardamom but it was really expensive so we opted to grind it ourselves.
Just make sure to remove the seeds from the green shell first. To do this, place one on the counter or in the palm of your hand and then slightly press down until the shell cracks.
Then remove the little brown/black seeds and place them into the grinder. Set the shell aside.
Once all your spices are ground, add them to a small bowl.
You can find the exact measurements that we used in the recipe card below – but you’re also welcome to experiment a bit and adjust the spices according to your preferences.
Mix all the spices together with a spoon until the spice blend is uniform in color.
Then fill your spice mix into an airtight container (for example a small mason jar or old spice jar with a lid) until you need it!
Gingerbread Spice Mix (German Lebkuchengewürz)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground anise
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, optional
Instructions
- If you need to grind any spices (like cloves, anise seeds, or otherwise) grind them individually in a small grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
- Place all spices together in a bowl. Be sure to measure each spice as you go. Mix the blend together with a spoon until uniform in color.
- Store the gingerbread spice mix in an airtight container until you need it for recipes – such as gingerbread cookies!
Notes
- Depending on what you use to grind some spices (particularly the cloves) be sure to wash it out quickly thereafter since some spices can leave stains (mainly on plastic).
- Grinding your own spices can give your spice blend a more intense flavor. Sometimes it can also be cheaper to buy the spices whole and grind them yourself.
- If you plan to grind your own cardamom, make sure to remove the seeds from its shell first and only grind the little seeds.
Nutrition
This nutritional information has been estimated by an online nutrition calculator. It should only be seen as a rough calculation and not a replacement for professional dietary advice.
Thank you so much for this. Here in the U.S., the only gingerbread spice with anise in it is made by Boston Spice but they are getting pricey. Looking forward to using this instead.