Soft, cakey and a little chewy, they’re fragrant with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and allspice. They taste marvelously Old World, too.

Lebkuchen, German spice cookies made with honey, are especially beloved at Christmas time.

For more than 90 years, Lebkuchen-Schmidt has been baking these popular treats in Nuremberg. Now, you can enjoy them in this country, thanks to New Jersey-based European Deli, its exclusive U.S. partner.

They come packaged in various options, including an embossed blue and gold tin ($49.95) depicting scenes from that German city, of which I received a sample.

It contains five regular lebkuchen and five dark-chocolate coated ones.

Although they’re often referred to as gingerbread, these particular cookies don’t have a prominent ginger taste. Rather, they have a more rounded spice warmth, along with a festive fruitiness from dried figs, lemon peel, and orange peel. They’re quite nutty tasting, too, with ground hazelnuts, almonds, and walnuts.

But you needn’t fear that they resemble fruitcake in the least. These are delicious cookies, through and through. I especially appreciate that they aren’t too sweet.

What makes these cookies especially distinctive is that they are baked on thin white wafers that almost look like paper, which help keep them from sticking to the baking pans and to one another. Yes, they are edible. In fact, they closely resemble Communion wafers, which makes sense as it’s believed that medieval monks were the first to bake these treats.

Half a cookie (as if anyone would limit themselves to that) has 110 calories, 5 to 6 grams of total fat (the latter is for the chocolate-covered one), 10 milligrams of sodium, 15 to 17 grams of total carbohydrates, and 2 grams of protein.

This would make a lovely host/hostess gift or a perfect afternoon pick-me-up with tea for yourself.