Zimtsterne - cinnamon stars - are typical German Christmas Cookies. Here are three ways to prepare them: regular or traditional, paleo, and vegan. All three ways are absolutely incredible and require only 4 ingredients!
Course Dessert
Cuisine German
Keyword cinnamon stars, german christmas cookies, zimtsterne
Prep Time 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 8 minutesminutes
chilling time 1 hourhour
Servings 40stars
Calories 72kcal
Ingredients
225galmond flour or almond meal2 1/4 cups almond flour or 2 cups + 2 Tbsp almond meal
125ghazelnut meal 1 cup + 1 Tbsp
200gpowdered sugarof cane sugar, maple sugar, or coconut sugar
1tspcinnamon
90-95gegg whites or aquafaba3 large eggs / 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp aquafaba
pinch of salt for egg whites or 1/2 tsp cream or tartar for aquafaba
Instructions
Add egg whites and a pinch of salt (or aquafaba and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar) to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium-high until you reach stiff peaks (see video).
Sift powdered sugar into the beaten egg white / aquafaba in 3 parts and fold in each part with a hand whisk until the mix is glossy and gooey and it's easy to form ribbons (see video).
Measure out about 1/3 cup of this egg white sugar mix and store in an airtight container in the fridge. This is your icing.
Add cinnamon and then nut meal in 3-4 parts to the remaining egg white sugar mix folding in carefully with a spatula. Stop folding as soon as a sticky ball forms. Do not overmix.
Wrap the dough in cling film or add to an airtight container and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 325F.
Roll out the dough in between two pieces of parchment paper to 1/4" thickness then press out stars with a star cookie cutter.
Place the cut-out stars on a parchment-paper-lined heavy-duty baking sheet and then brush on the icing on each star.
Bake for 8 minutes, remove from the oven, and after about 2 minutes on the baking sheet carefully move onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Store in a tin box or other storage container on the kitchen counter for up to 4 days. For longer storage add to the fridge for up to a week or freeze up to 3 months.