Note: This recipe was originally part of my Biscuit Advent Calendar, a one-recipe-a-day email series in December. I’m gradually turning those recipes into proper blog posts so they’re easier to find.
Cinnamon stars are not the biscuit that draws attention on the plate. They are simply there every year, on every German Christmas plate worth its salt. Traditional, unpretentious, made from almonds, sugar, egg whites and cinnamon with a soft chewy centre and a crisp white meringue glaze on top. Just like you wonder how many needles will be left on the Advent wreath by Christmas, you wonder how many of these will make it to the Christmas Day biscuit platter.
When I started this project (to send 24 recipes in 24 days), I thought I might run out of biscuit recipes. I make about 5-10 varieties every year (and it’s a largely repetitive traditional affair). But I realise now, I will not run out of recipes. What I might run out of is preambles. Because this is another ‘Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without it’ sort of recipe. But even among the classics, Zimtsterne are the most iconic for me. And they are technically interesting but more on that in a moment.
I don’t like when people put the recipe at the end of an article. (It’s for search engine optimization). So do me (and yourself) the favor and scroll all the way down to not miss the tips and tricks ; ) Especially with this recipe.
Recipe
Makes about 50 (depending on the cutter)
Ingredients:
- about 400 ground almonds or hazelnuts (not blanched) (3 and 2/3 cups)
- 3 egg whites (medium)
- 250g icing sugar (2 cups)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch of salt
Method:
- Beat the egg whites to medium stiff peaks. Gradually add the icing sugar while you keep on beating. Reserve 2-3 tbsp for the glaze in a bowl (cover it so it doesn’t dry out).
- Carefully fold in about half the almonds then knead in some more so that you get a dough that is not very sticky anymore.
- Take two layers of cling film and roll the dough out between the layers (otherwise it sticks to the rolling pin). If you don’t want to use clingfilm at all, copious amounts of icing sugar also work. Or you could try baking parchment (but some aren’t non-stick enough)
- Cut out your stars and put them onto a tray. These don’t spread at all. In order for your cutter not to get super sticky, dip it frequently into some icing sugar (just put a tablespoon of it on the worktop).
- Glaze the stars. I use a silicone brush for this (see picture above), you can do it with a spoon or a knife. Just try it out.
- Bake at 120 °C fan (250 °F convection) for about 25 minutes. The glaze should stay pure white, if it gets yellow at all they are definitely done/your oven was really too hot.
- Let them cool completely on a rack then pack into boxes. Again they are not super super delicate (some biscuits I place between layers of parchment paper to protect them from each other inside the box but these don’t require that). They will keep for a really long time but they do go hard after a few weeks.
Tips & Tricks
Cinnamon stars are technically a macaroon (fr. macaron, ger. Makrone) or nut meringue-type biscuit. They use egg white as a binder, plus nuts and sugar. This recipe is flour (and therefore gluten) free.
Who knew German baking could be this trendy?
And before you ask: I know recipes that skip fat or flour, but I don’t know any biscuit recipe that skips the sugar.
Eggs
This is a recipe that only uses egg whites. You can pair it with a recipe that uses egg yolks (I generally add only yolks to my shortbread [link]). You can keep both whites and yolks for about four days in the fridge but they can also be frozen.
Room temperature eggs whip easier (but are harder to separate).
Nuts
Ground nuts don’t behave like flour. They don’t form gluten, they don’t absorb much moisture, and combined with egg whites they create this lovely, chewy–almost–fudgy texture (exactly like a flourless chocolate cake).
The famous white glaze is basically the same meringue as the biscuit base only without the nuts. It dries crisply on top while the biscuit underneath stays soft.
All of this means three things for cinnamon stars:
- They need a low-and-slow bake. Think drying, not baking. High heat would brown the glaze before the inside has time to set.
- They need to be relatively thick: about 1 cm (a bit under half an inch) to get the full, fudgy chew.
- The star shape introduces a bit of fiddliness. Pointy shapes + sticky glaze = patience required.
Cinnamon stars are so popular (and so famously fiddly) that there is a dedicated cinnamon-star cutter (google ‘Zimtsternausstecher’ if you want to know what it looks like) that opens in the middle to help with release. Basically you have two choices:
Method 1: You roll out the dough, then glaze it, then cut. Your cutter will end up covered in glaze but it’s a one-step-process. This is where the special cutter comes in as it makes the glazed stars easier to release.
Method2: You roll out the dough and cut stars first and then glaze, keeping the cutter clean but having to glaze every single star. I opt for the latter. I find glazing stars quite meditative and my cutter stays clean. Also as with any cutouts you need to reroll the dough after you cut the stars. When the dough is preglazed you work in meringue so after every roll you need to add more nuts our to compensate.
Here is my setup:
There is no right and wrong way. You take your pick.