Zimtsterne Cookie Recipe

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4.50 from 4 votes

Zimtsterne Cookie Recipe

A light cookie with sweet and spicy flavor, perfect for a holiday party.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Total Time 45

Servings cookies

Calories 53kcal

Author Erin Otto

Equipment

baking sheet
parchment paper
medium bowl
measuring cup
tablespoon
cookie cutters

Ingredients

4 ½ cups blanched almond flour
1 tbsp arrowroot powder (plus more for rolling)
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 egg whites
1 cup unrefined granulated sugar (such as rapadura or coconut sugar)
unrefined powdered sugar (for dusting)

Instructions

If you’ll be grinding the almonds yourself, place 1 cup almonds at a time in a VitaMix or food processor and whiz until finely ground (about 10 seconds in the VitaMix). Be sure to STOP before they become almond butter! Repeat until you have 4 1/2 cups of ground almonds. Here’s what mine looked like; pretty coarse, and the cookies still turned out great.
In a medium sized bowl, combine all ingredients except the egg whites and rapadura. Whisk together, until it is a uniform sandy mixture. If you’re using almond flour instead of ground almonds, reserve 1/2 cup of your flour.
Set that aside, and separate your egg whites from the yolks, if you haven’t already done so. Place the whites in a large bowl, and beat them with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. That means the egg whites turn frothy, and when a spoon is dipped into it and drawn out, the egg forms a peak and then falls back over.
Add the rapadura or sweetener of your choice tablespoon by tablespoon, beating it in each time. It will make a lovely thick mixture and give the cookies a mild molasses taste.
Fold the almond mixture into the egg-white mixture until the two are combined. Let it sit for fifteen minutes to absorb some of the moisture.
After 15 minutes, your dough should be soft; able to be rolled out without sticking hopelessly to the rolling pin. If you’re using almond flour and you reserved 1/2 cup, slowly add in your remaining almond flour until the dough becomes pliable without being overly sticky. You may not need the fill 1/2 cup, so just add what’s needed.
If you’re using ground almonds and you find it’s too sticky, add in a little more, say, a quarter cup or so, to make it more workable.
Preheat the oven to 325° F. Now it’s time to roll out the dough.
I found it helpful to place a piece of parchment paper or a Silpat on the counter top where I rolled it out so the cookies wouldn’t stick. And I sprinkled a little arrowroot powder underneath the dough and a little more on top. This worked beautifully!
Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the star shapes and gently transfer each cookie to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 12 – 14 minutes, until they get lightly golden underneath. Watch them carefully and make sure that they don’t over bake so they stay tender and chewy. It’s okay if they seem fragile when they come out; they’ll firm up as they cool, but still be beautifully soft.
While they’re still piping hot, sift a little powdered sugar over the top of each cookie.
Let the cookies rest for a few minutes on the pan, and then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack until they are ready to eat. But knowing the smell wafting through your house as they’ve been baking, that might not be very long.
And that’s it for the cookies! As a final note, though, we had company the day I made these. I offered one to our guest, and as she was leaving several hours later, she turned around and said to me, “Those cookies rock.” And yes, ladies and gents. That is a direct quote. I hope you love them as much as we did! Enjoy!

Notes

These cookies are delicious plain, so you can skip the powdered sugar step if you'd like.

Nutrition