Lebkuchen spice substitutes
Lebkuchen spice substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Homemade Lebkuchengewurz
Same amount as the lebkuchen spice
This is not really a substitute, it is the recipe. Per generous tablespoon: 2 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp cloves, ¼ tsp allspice, ¼ tsp coriander, 1/8 tsp anise, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp cardamom, and a scrape of mace if you have it. Indistinguishable from the bought jar in a baked dough.
Mix your own, because this blend does exactly one job, aroma, and nothing structural. For 1 tablespoon of Lebkuchen spice, stir together 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ teaspoon ground allspice, ¼ teaspoon ground coriander, 1/8 teaspoon ground anise, 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom. If your cupboard is thin, 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice plus a pinch of cloves and a pinch of ground anise gets you most of the way there. Plain cinnamon on its own will give you a good cookie that tastes like a cinnamon cookie rather than Lebkuchen.
- Verdict —
- Works
- The tweak —
- Whisk together in a small bowl and use straight away, or jar it and date the lid.
- Best for —
- Lebkuchen
Updated 19 Aug 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of lebkuchen spice | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Homemade LebkuchengewurzLebkuchen | Same amountWorks | Works |
| 2 | Pumpkin pie spice plus cloves and aniseLebkuchen | 1 Tbsp plus ¼ tsp cloves plus 1/8 tsp aniseWorks | Works |
| 3 | Speculaas spice or British mixed spiceLebkuchen | Same amountWorks | Works |
| 4 | Chinese five spice plus cinnamonLebkuchen | 1 ½ tsp each per 1 TbspTweak it | Tweak it |
| 5 | Apple pie spice plus clovesgingerbread | 1 Tbsp plus ¼ tsp clovesTweak it | Tweak it |
| 6 | Ground cinnamon aloneemergency baking | 2 tsp per 1 TbspTweak it | Tweak it |
Homemade Lebkuchengewurz
similar taste and texture
This is not really a substitute, it is the recipe. Per generous tablespoon: 2 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp cloves, ¼ tsp allspice, ¼ tsp coriander, 1/8 tsp anise, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp cardamom, and a scrape of mace if you have it. Indistinguishable from the bought jar in a baked dough.
- Best for
- Lebkuchen, Printen, Pfeffernusse, honey cake, spiced glazes
- Prep
- Whisk together in a small bowl and use straight away, or jar it and date the lid.
Coriander and anise are the two most people leave out and the two that make it taste German rather than American.
Pumpkin pie spice plus cloves and anise
similar taste and texture
Pumpkin pie spice is cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg forward with no anise and no coriander, so on its own the result smells warm and rounded, more like American gingerbread. The extra cloves push it darker and the anise adds the faint liquorice lift that makes Lebkuchen recognisable.
- Best for
- Lebkuchen, gingerbread, spice cookies, cake batters
- Prep
- Add to the dry ingredients as you would the original blend.
The most likely rescue for an American cupboard, and genuinely close once the cloves go in.
Speculaas spice or British mixed spice
similar taste and texture
Both are close cousins from the same tradition. Dutch speculaas spice carries white pepper and more cardamom, so it tastes slightly sharper and more peppery. British mixed spice usually has no anise, so it tastes a little softer and sweeter. In a dense honey dough most people could not pick either out of a line-up.
- Best for
- Lebkuchen, Printen, honey cake, spiced biscuits
- Prep
- Straight swap, no adjustment needed.
If using mixed spice, add 1/8 tsp ground anise per tablespoon to close the gap.
Chinese five spice plus cinnamon
different taste, similar texture
A surprisingly workable swap, because five spice already covers cinnamon, clove and star anise, three of the notes you need. Cut it half and half with plain cinnamon or the star anise and fennel shout. The tell is the Sichuan pepper, which leaves a faint tingle on the lips that is not part of Lebkuchen.
- Best for
- Lebkuchen, dark honey doughs, glazed spice cookies
- Prep
- Measure 1 ½ tsp five spice and 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon per tablespoon of Lebkuchen spice.
Works best in dark, heavily sweetened doughs where the fennel note reads as anise rather than as savoury.
Apple pie spice plus cloves
different taste, similar texture
Apple pie spice is mostly cinnamon with nutmeg and allspice and no anise or coriander at all, so this is the mildest and least distinctive option. The cookies will be pleasant and warmly spiced but the aroma stays flat and one-dimensional next to the real blend.
- Best for
- gingerbread, spice cookies, when the cupboard is bare
- Prep
- Add to the dry ingredients with the extra cloves.
Add 1/8 tsp ground ginger too if the recipe is meant to have any bite.
Ground cinnamon alone
different taste, similar texture
The honest least-bad single-jar answer. Cinnamon is the largest single component of the real blend, so using it alone is not wrong, it is incomplete. You will bake a good honey cookie that tastes of cinnamon; nobody will mistake it for Lebkuchen. Add a pinch of cloves if you have nothing else and it improves noticeably.
- Best for
- emergency baking, children's cookies
- Prep
- Use 2 tsp per tablespoon called for, not a full tablespoon, or the cinnamon dominates.
If you have exactly one extra spice, make it cloves. Clove is the second pillar of the blend.
Questions
5 questionsIs Lebkuchen spice the same as gingerbread spice?
Nearly. Lebkuchengewurz is the German version of gingerbread spice, but the balance is different. American gingerbread spice leads with ginger; Lebkuchen spice leads with cinnamon and cloves and treats ginger as a minor player, with anise and coriander doing work that American blends leave out entirely.
Can I just leave it out?
The dough will bake well without it, since the blend contributes only aroma and nothing to structure or rise. But Lebkuchen without the spice is simply a honey cake, and the spice is the entire reason for the recipe. Even plain cinnamon plus a pinch of cloves is far better than nothing.
How much do I use?
Most German Lebkuchen recipes use 1 to 2 teaspoons of Lebkuchengewurz per 500 g of flour, which is roughly 4 cups. Printen and Pfeffernusse recipes often go higher. If your recipe gives a weight in grams, 1 teaspoon of ground blend is roughly 2 to 3 g.
Does it contain sugar or salt?
No. Lebkuchengewurz is pure ground spice, so swapping in your own mix or another blend will not change the sweetness or the salt in your dough. Check the label on very cheap supermarket blends, which occasionally add a flour-based anti-caking agent.
Can I use it in savoury cooking?
In small amounts, yes. A quarter teaspoon works in a red cabbage braise, a beef sauerbraten marinade or a game stew, which are all places German cooks already use the same spices. Any more and the dish tastes like dessert.
Tips for substituting lebkuchen spice
6 tips- Lebkuchen dough is traditionally made with honey and then rested for days or even weeks before baking, and the spices bloom over that rest. A blend that smells slightly too strong on mixing day is usually right by baking day.
- Grind whole anise seed yourself if you can. Pre-ground anise fades faster than anything else in the blend, and it is the note people say is missing when a homemade mix tastes flat.
- Anise and star anise are not the same plant. If star anise is all you have, use half as much, because it is noticeably more potent.
- For Pfeffernusse, add a pinch of ground black or white pepper on top of your blend. The name means pepper nuts and traditional recipes really do contain pepper, which most modern spice mixes leave out.
- Potash (Pottasche) and hartshorn salt (Hirschhornsalz) in a German recipe are leaveners, not spices. If your recipe lists them alongside Lebkuchengewurz, you still need a leavener; the spice blend has nothing to do with the rise.
- Ground blends lose their punch in about six months. Mix a small jar rather than a big one, and if you are using a jar from last Christmas, use half again as much.