Zimsterne - German Cinnamon Star Cookies
These sweet almond and cinnamon cookies – Zimsterne – are quintessential Christmas cookies that you can find in Germany and other German-speaking countries such as Austria and Switzerland. Christmas is not Christmas without these crisp, spicy cookies. It is a German tradition for almost every family to make a batch of this kind of Christmas cookies at home.
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (plus chilling time)
- Yield: 20 cookies
INGREDIENTS
For the cookie dough:
- 6.2 oz (175 g) butter, softened
- ½ cup + 2 ½ teaspoons (125 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons (25 g) ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup + 1 ½ tablespoon (50 g) hazelnut flour
- ½ cup +1 teaspoon (50 g) almond flour
- 2 cups (250 g) flour
For the white royal icing:
- 1 ½ cup + 5 teaspoons (200 g) icing (powdered) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) egg whites (see note #1)
- several drops of lemon juice
INSTRUCTIONS
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To make the cookie dough, place softened butter, granulated sugar and ground cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix. Add egg, hazelnut, and almond flour and mix again. Finally, add all-purpose flour (use a flour sifter) and mix to combine. Remove the cookie dough from the bowl and form a ball.
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Roll the dough out with a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment paper (sprinkled with icing sugar) to the thickness of 0.4 inch/1 cm and refrigerate for 1 hour.
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To make the white royal icing, whisk the egg white with icing sugar and 3 – 4 drops of lemon juice using with an electric mixer.
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Take the cookie dough out of the fridge and spread a thin layer of royal icing with a bent spatula. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes.
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Preheat oven to 300 F/150 C. Cut out cookie stars with a 2 inch/5 cm star-shaped cookie cutter, remove cookies by pushing them underneath and arrange them on a baking sheet covered with the parchment.
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Bake cookies for 12 to 15 minutes. They must be baked, but the royal icing must not color. Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool down.
NOTES
- 30 g egg whites approximately equal raw 1 fresh egg white from medium size chicken egg.
- Choose a six point star cookie cutter or a five point star cookie cutter to make these cookies.
- Wash and dry a star cookie cutter (if necessary) before cutting the next cookie. It makes cookies neat!
- If you do not have a star-shaped cookie cutter, make them diamond or triangle-shaped. Feel free to use your favorite but simple cookie cutter.
- Test and adjust your oven. Do not over bake cookies; otherwise, the royal icing turns brown. You strive to get the icing as white as possible, but a little brown tint can look beautiful, too.
- The remaining cookie scraps (falls) are not pretty as cinnamon stars, but you could bake them as well. They are delicious!
- Cinnamon star cookies can be stored in a dry, airtight container in a cool place for up to one month.
https://www.bakinglikeachef.com/german-cinnamon-star-cookies-christophe-felder/