Zimtsterne: Cinnamon Star cookies a German Christmas cookies made with egg white and ground almond, delicious chewy crisp nutty cookies
This is last Christmas bake for this season. I made two cookies, bread and a cake this time. I also spent some time watching Santa dropping presents through Santa tracker along with my kids. For me it is just fantasy, still going through childhood in this wonderful time of the year is somewhat special. My kids are waiting for Santa, as they already told me to keep oatmeal cookies and milk for him. I made that too. This is traditional Christmas cookies from Germany.
After making Vanocka bread I was left with two egg whites. So I decided to use that for making Zimtsterne /Cinnamon Star Cookies, which are classic German Christmas cookies. In Germany they are typically enjoyed during the advent time and every housewife or baker has his or her own favorite recipe.
Cinnamon Star Cookies is a really nice meringue cookie with loads of almonds. Yes it is made with just 6 ingredients, egg white, almond meal, cinnamon, lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar and salt. Actually you are making a royal icing first and then adding the almond meal and cinnamon to it. While reading the recipe I was really skeptical as I read lot of bad vibes about making them as it is so sticky dough.
But I found out that using perfect amount of almond meal and also chilling them in refrigerator for a few hours makes it easy to work with. I end up chilling the dough overnight, as I was not able to make it in evening as planned. Still it turned out really great.
I tried two methods of spreading dough, one spreading the dough on a parchment paper and then place another parchment paper on the top. However that turned out to be difficult for me. So I tried this method where I spread a small piece of dough into ¼ inch thickness round and then using a star cookie cutter cut them and transfer to baking sheet. Make sure you keep the cut outs in the parchment paper and transfer the same parchment paper for baking.
First you need to make meringue by beating egg whites into stiff peak . Then add cinnamon
Then the nuttiness of the cookies is get from Almond meal, you need to referigerate the cookie dough so that you can able to shape them into star cookies later.
Needs to make sure not to overbake as the frosting changes it color from white to brown. 
This is delicious chewy nutty cookies you will fell in love with it for sure. Here comes the recipe of Zimtsterne .
Zimtsterne: Cinnamon Star Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites /66g
- A pinch of salt
- 200 g/1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
- 153 g / 1 ½ cup almond meal
- ¾ tablespoon of lemon juice
- 350 g 12 ounces ground almonds
Instructions
- In a kitchen aid bowl add egg whites and salt beat well.
- At first it will be frothy like this.
- Gradually add sugar and beat until it is stiff.
- Set aside ¼ cup this sugar-egg-white mixture for frosting.
- Add cinnamon, lemon juice and almond meal, to the rest of the beaten egg white and
- knead to a soft dough and chill the dough for 5 hours or overnight.
- When you are ready for baking.
- Roll out dough on a flat surface (it may be slightly covered with sugar), approximately 7 mm (0.3 inches) thick.
- Cut out stars or other shapes and put them on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
- Add 1 teaspoon frosting in the center of ( which you reserved earlier) each cookies.Slightly spread towards the ends.
- While preparing the cookies pre-heat oven to 300F(180C) and bake the cookies for about 15 minutes.
- Make sure not to over bake as the frosting will turn into brown in color.
- Let cool completely before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
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Ramona says
Thank you for sharing this recipe, my kids loved it. Myself included of course but kids are a lot harder to please 🙏🏻
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Glenda says
Love these chewy, delicious cookies and my mind is blown that they "frost themselves" in the oven! Can't wait to make them again for Christmas!
Suja Manoj says
Nalla bangiyundu,tempting cookies
Shobha Rawal says
cute & lovely cookies.........you made it so perfectly.
Poornima says
Wow, those cookies look beautiful..
Ritu Ahuja says
Merry Christmas my dear. These cookies look perfect. I can't resist more. I wish I could taste some. Yum Yum 🙂
Rafeeda says
So flavorful with the almond meal and cinnamon... Lovely bake Swathi...
Jean | DelightfulRepast.com says
Swathi, I've never seen a cookie like this before. It sounds delicious and looks so pretty. Must try it next time I want to bake something a little different.
beena says
Wow perfect cookies, For this season. Love it
Priya says
Hiii.. This is excellent recipe very nice presentation ... Love the recipe and your blog... Have a happy holidays
Shirley @ gluten free easily (gfe) says
I'll admit I've never heard of these cookies, but they look and sound so wonderful, Swathi!
Shirley
Nalini Somayaji says
Excellent cinnamon Cookies..let me grab some ..
Merry Christmas.....Happy New year and Happy holidays....to YOU ALL...Swathi...