The days are becoming shorter and the weather colder: For me it’s time to hole myself up at home and bake German xmas cookies! “Zimsterne” cookies are a very traditional part of German Christmas. They are made entirely without flour but with almonds and cinnamon instead, which makes for a heavenly delicious combination.
In Germany you can buy them packaged as well, but of course I prefer the home made version.
I’m not really a whizz in the kitchen when it comes to cooking and baking, but this recipe is so easy, you should give it a go:
You need:
- 200 g powdered sugar
- 1 pack of Vanilla sugar (Dr Oetker)
- 400 g crushed, raw almonds
- 2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 3 egg whites
You’ll also need parchment paper, a star cookie cutter (or any other traditional cutter, I used hearts for a change), and a rolling pin.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, add powdered sugar and vanilla sugar while continuing to beat. The mixture should be stiff like the icing on a gingerbread house.
Take a whole cup off the meringue and put it in the fridge.
Add measured almond meal and cinnamon to the meringue and mix by hand. The dough should hold it’s shape and not be runny.
Chill the dough for an hour in a freezer bag.
Powder the counter top with almond meal and roll out the dough to 7 mm. You can spread the icing on now or after you have cut out the cookies. I did it before cutting.
Cut out stars with the cookie cutter and dip the cutter in water in between
Place the cookies on parchment paper.
Bake for 25 min in a pre-heated oven at 130 degrees.
Baked cinnamon stars (or hearts in my case). Make sure to put aside a whole mug of the meringue. Mine wasn’t enough (only half a cup) and I ran out of icing! If you used enough icing, it should look like the below…
