I love Christmas cookies, and this year I’m going to start with some delicious typical German Christmas cookies called German cinnamon stars cookies or zimtsterne . Although they seem very complicated to prepare, they are quite simple if you follow the steps well and the truth is that they are beautiful.
This recipe is usually prepared with ground almonds or almond flour but in Germany they are also usually prepared with a mixture of almonds and hazelnuts.
There are 2 ways to make these Zimtsterne cookies, the first (which is the one I will give you next) is the one I like the most since the icing is smoother and therefore the result looks neater, for them we will stretch the dough, we will put the glaze on top and then cut. The second way is to stretch the dough, cut the dough and then add the glacee. If they do not have a “good pulse” (and I have assumed that mine is terrible) the end result may not be ideal. That’s why I prefer the way I explain below, EYE that the remains of dough will not lose them, but simply mix them with a little more ground almonds and stretch the dough again, glacee it and cut it until you finish with the dough.
The traditional way to make these cookies is with a five- or six-pointed star cutter, since its name is German cinnamon stars cookies, but if you want you can make them the way you prefer.
If you want to make other delicious traditional Christmas cookies, you might be interested in this recipes of; Florentine cookie; Austrian vainilla crecent or maybe this quarkstollen.
Note: these cookies do not have wheat flour so they do not have gluten and are suitable for celiacs.
German cinnamon stars cookies
Equipment
- 1 star cutter
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 9 oz very fine ground almonds or almond flour
- 2 level teaspoons cinnamon powder
- 2 egg whites at room temperature
- 7 oz powdered sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- zest of 1 lemon
For the frosting:
- 1 egg white
- 5 oz powdered sugar approximately´
Instructions
For the cookies:
- In a bowl mix the ground almonds with cinnamon, salt and lemon zest. Reserve.
- Beat the egg whites until they are slightly foamy, add the powdered sugar little by little and continue beating, then add the almond mixture and continue mixing until a homogeneous paste is obtained.
- Stretch the dough a little and take it to the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
For the frosting:
- Prepare the glaze by mixing the egg white with the flower sugar with a hand whisk until a homogeneous and slightly pasty mixture is obtained. Reserve.
- We stretch the dough of the desired thickness (normally they are made 1 cm high, but the truth is that I prefer them more finite).
- On the stretched dough spread the frosting and spread it with a spatula. Let it sit for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 320ªF.
- In a small well we put hot water and in it we submerge a cookie mold in the shape of a star, and cut the stars trying to leave as little space as possible between them.
- Carefully transfer the cookies to a cookie tray with butter paper and take them to the oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Let cool before removing from the tray and enjoy!