From the Keepin’ It Simple Kitchen, it’s time for another Fat Man Cookith here at LedeNews. In fact, as the season of Advent begins, we’ll be bringing you a new recipe every Sunday for the next few, featuring some of our holiday favorites.
There’s a theme to these, but you folks are a smart lot. You’ll figure it out.
Without any further adieu, we bring you Zimtsterne or Cinnamon Star cookies. Want your house to fill with the smell of cinnamon and the holidays? This is a great recipe to begin with.
But a bit of a warning. Some recipes call for finely chopped almonds. Other’s make it a little simpler and allow for almond or hazelnut flour instead. Do not, under any circumstances, combine the two recipes as I did in a haste.
Let’s just say the binding agents were in short supply and the first run through had tire-like blowouts upon baking. That being said, we still had a lot of fun and even the ruined batch tasted great, albeit a bit crunchy and all over the place.
But the finished product is an excellent addition to your Christmas cookie repertoire.
Ingredient List A
- 3 large egg whites
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3¼ cup almond or hazelnut meal
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 packet Vanillezucker
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Ingredient List B
- 2 cups of finely ground almonds
- ½ cup of granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 2 large egg whites
- For the Glaze
- 1 large egg white
- 1 dash salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons of milk
The Process
My original intention was to follow the recipe that used the ingredients in list B, hence my purchase initially of almonds which needed grounding. But when it came time to make the first batch, I followed the instructions and remaining ingredients from list A. I assumed, incorrectly, that I could substitute ground almonds for the flour with no other additions.
So the process, and photos, come from attempt number one. On my second attempt, I fully went with Ingredient and Instruction List A. Much better result.
We combined the egg whites and powdered sugar into one bowl and mixed well. Then we combined the ground almonds (read almond meal the second time), cinnamon, vanilla sugar (ordered these packets off Amazon, shipped from Germany), and the salt and mixed them together.
Then we slowly poured/mixed the almond mixture into the sugar/egg white mixture. I was supposed to save some for the glaze, but I always use my own powdered sugar/water mixture for icing.
Once mixed together, we combined the mixture and began rolling it out with a rolling pin, adding in more powdered sugar atop the mixture in areas of stickiness. Once rolled out, we use a cookie cutter to make star cutouts.
The cutouts went on the cookie sheet and my daughter painted on the icing glaze with a paintbrush before going into the over for 20-25 minutes at 300.
The second time around worked quite well. The first? A delicious, yet horrendous mess of unsettled, blown-out cookies. But hey, that’s half the fun.
