Cinnamon Stars, Almonds and Meringue to Brighten up your Christmas

/ December 5, 2014

These gorgeous little stars have been part of our family Christmas for as long as I can remember. They are not easy to make as the dough is incredibly soft and sticky, but they are absolutely worth the effort: the earthy taste and coarse texture of the whole almonds is balanced out by the soft meringue, and the cinnamon flavour is to die for. But most importantly, cinnamon stars are the perfect partner to the butter biscuits I shared with you a few days ago, in that they use up most of the leftover egg whites. Cinnamon stars 2 The beautiful cup on the picture, by the way, was illustrated by the mother of a school friend of mine and depicts the birthplace of Gottlieb Daimler, an inventor who developed the first modern car engines. The name might sound familiar – after all, he started the company Daimler Benz with his colleague, the company that makes the Mercedes. I grew up in a village close to Daimler’s birthplace, Schorndorf, a market town with a beautiful square which is framed by rows of quaint black-and-white houses that date back to the 17th century – the perfect backdrop for my cinnamon stars! Cinnamon stars 3

Cinnamon Stars (makes 50)

  • 400 grams whole almonds
  • 500 grams icing sugar
  • 5 egg whites
  • 1 lemon, for zest and juice
  • 15 grams ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar

Grind the whole almonds to a fine powder. Don’t be tempted to buy ground almonds as you will be loosing out on the rich and earthy flavour of the whole almonds! Cinnamon stars ground almonds Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Sift the icing sugar onto the whites and stir to dissolve all lumps. Add the lemon zest and 1/2 of the lemon juice. Mix 2/3 of the icing with the ground almonds and the cinnamon, leaving the rest to decorate the stars. The mix will be quite soft and sticky, which is how it is meant to be. Cinnamon stars dough Prepare 2 or 3 baking trays with parchment paper. Sprinkle some of the caster sugar onto your work surface and roll out small portions of the almond mix to a thickness of 1 cm or 1/2 inch. The sugar will prevent it from sticking onto the surface, as well as onto your rolling pin and your cutter. Use it like you would use flour – trust me, it works! Cinnamon stars cutting the shapes Place the cut out stars on the parchment, perhaps using a palette knife or similar. You can place them quite close to one another as they will not expand. Leave them to dry out for around an hour. Cinnamon stars placing on tray Preheat your oven to 160C. Decorate the stars with the remaining icing mix, adding the remaining lemon juice, if necessary, and bake them- or rather dry them – for around 20 minutes or until the icing is beginning to turn yellow. Cinnamon stars fancy decorating Don’t over bake them – they should be quite soft in the middle, so give them time to cool down before moving them on to a wire rack or similar. They can be stored for up to 3 or 4 weeks in an air-tight box or a tin. We traditionally prepare them at the end of November and keep nibbling away at them for the whole of the Christmas period. If they last that long. As today is Friday, I will be bringing these along to Angie and her Fiesta Friday gathering at The Novice Gardener – she is helped this week by the wonderful Michelle @Giraffes Can Bake and MB @Bourbon & Brown Sugar. Thanks I cannot wait to see who else will turn up! Fiesta Friday Badge Button I party @ Angie has been hosting the event for almost a year now, it’s an inspirational potluck party, so do come and take a look for yourself!

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42 thoughts on “Cinnamon Stars, Almonds and Meringue to Brighten up your Christmas”

    • I used to share a student house with a Japanese guy, who had been to a German Christmas market and remembered thinking that Germans took their Christmas rather seriously. When he saw me baking for Christmas – single postgrad student, no kids – he realised his first impression had been correct: Germans do take their Christmas seriously 😉

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  3. Uns hat der Bogen vom Mercedesstern zum Zimtstern gut gefallen. Da ist vor Dir sicherlich noch niemand darauf gekommen… Sehen sehr schön aus.

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  4. These look lovely and remind me of my time as a student in Germany – I recently found some of my recipes for then and was planning to try them. I hope they are as nice as these look!

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  5. What gorgeous Christmas cookies… I’ve never seen anything quite like them… I think I may have to add them to our holiday cookie tradition at House Morell. Thanks for bringing them to Fiesta Friday… oh and I LOVE dishes as well – they are beautiful 🙂

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  12. I can’t believe you are managing to post something every day – I can barely keep up! But I am so excited I have, because guess what? THIS IS A RECIPE I CAN MAKE! Not a grain of wheat in sight 😀 I am going to make these next weekend – am on my third batch of Vanillekipferl and getting sick of the sight of them 😉 Thank you, Ginger!!

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      • Honestly, one of my first experiences while my husband was working, I walked to the market and picked up some grapes from one of the vendors and she really lit into me in German telling me not to touch the grapes but point to the ones I wanted 😦 One of my grandmothers is a Vogel/Schultzbrink and she came over to America with this huge trunk carrying the few belongings she had which I still have 🙂

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  16. Oh my, these look so good! And so cute! I did get sad because I thought I’d have to settle for ready ground almonds because my food processor died (and wouldn’t have been up to the task before it died) but then I remembered I’m getting a fancy new one from Santa! So they’ll have to be new year cookies, but I could eat these all year round they look too yummy to wait!

    Thanks for bringing these along to Fiesta Friday 😀

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    • Thank you! When I was a kid, my mum had a little mill especially to grate almonds and chocolate – I loved ‘cleaning’ it out after chocolate… We have quite a few recipes using whole ground almonds, which have such a different flavour and texture. Say hello to Santa from me – he clearly knows you well 😉

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  18. I look at this cookie and immediately think of Munich. The Cinnamon Stars were part of a welcoming gift at our hotel and were also passed out in front of one of the churches by an angle. 🙂 I’m thrilled to have your recipe.

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  22. Ginger, I think that this is almost exactly the same as my aunt’s recipe. I remember the dough being very sticky and I also remember the lemon flavour coming through with the cinnamon. She used whole unskilled almonds which she ground up too. Thanks so much for sharing this – I am bookmarking it for next year when, I will make them early so that they can be nibbled on throughout December! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

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    • I am so glad I could be of help – I am always worrying that these old traditions are dying out and are not being handed down to the next generation – you have singlehandedly restored my faith in humanity, Selma! 😉
      And a very happy Christmas to you, too!

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