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–+ servings
5 stars (2 reviews)

Chocolate Cinnamon Stars (Zimtsterne)

Thanh | Eat, Little Bird
Prep30 minutes
Cook5 minutes
Rest6 hours
Total6 hours 35 minutes
Serves: 30 or more cookies
These Chocolate Cinnamon Stars are deliciously nutty and chewy. This cookie recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free.
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Ingredients

  • 2 egg whites, approx. 70g
  • 1 pinch fine salt
  • 200 g (1 cup minus 2 tablespoons) caster sugar, (superfine sugar)
  • 350 g (12 ½ oz) ground almonds, (almond meal)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 10 g (2 tablespoons) cocoa powder
  • ½ tablespoon Frangelico or Baileys, Kirsch is more traditional, or you could simply use vanilla extract
  • icing sugar, (powdered sugar) for decorating

Instructions 

To Make the Cookies

  1. Using a stand mixer or electric beaters, whisk the eggwhites with the pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.
  2. Slowly add the sugar with the beaters on high speed.
  3. Reduce the speed and add the ground almonds, ground cinnamon, cocoa powder and liqueur of your choice (or vanilla extract).
  4. You should have a fairly sticky dough.
  5. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper until it is about 1 cm thick.
  6. Cut out shapes of your choice and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. As the dough is fairly moist and sticky, you might need to use a palette knife or spatula to lift the cookie shapes.
  7. The cookie shapes need to dry at room temperature for about 6 hours or overnight.

To Bake the Cookies

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/428°F (without fan).
  2. Bake the cookies for 3-5 minutes until they are dry to the touch.
  3. Remove the cookies to a cooling rack to dry completely.
  4. Dust with icing sugar (powdered sugar) before serving.
  5. The cookies keep well in a covered container for about 2 weeks.

Kitchen Notes

  • VARIATIONS
    For the traditional non-chocolate version of Cinnamon Stars (or Zimtsterne), simply omit the cocoa powder and use Kirsch in place of the Frangelico or Baileys.
  • RECIPE CREDIT
    This recipe is adapted from Betty Bossi.
  • OVEN TEMPERATURES
    All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer's handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.
  • CONVERSIONS
    To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 98kcal, Carbohydrates: 9.8g, Protein: 2.8g, Fat: 5.9g, Sodium: 9.1mg, Fiber: 1.8g, Sugar: 7.3g

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