Zimmerstern (German Cinnamon Star Cookies) are delicious Christmas cookies! A gluten free recipe made with almonds, lemon, cinnamon, powdered sugar, and egg whites. Zimtsterne are classic International cookies.
Place 10 ounces of almonds in a food processor and pulse until finely ground with a few larger pieces. It should not be as fine as almond flour and more like a very coarse sand.
Sift your powdered sugar. Remove 1/2 cup of the sifted sugar and set aside.
Whip the egg whites in a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer) on high speed until soft peaks form.
With the mixer still running, slowly add the remaining sifted powdered sugar (leave the 1/2 cup you reserved aside for later). Continue mixing until the mixture is shiny, somewhat stiffer, and thicker, about 2 minutes.
Set aside 2/3 cup of the egg white meringue.
To the mixing bowl with the remaining meringue, add the ground almonds, remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar, lemon zest, and cinnamon. Gently fold the ingredients together until combined. The dough will be stiff and somewhat sticky.
Preheat oven to 250°F.
Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
Use either more silicone baking mats, or parchment, or wax paper for rolling the cookies. You will need two mats/sheets.Dust one of the sheets with more powdered sugar (does not have to be sifted).
Place the dough on top of the dusted sheet, sprinkle some more powdered sugar on top of the dough, and place the other sheet/mat on top. The dough should now be between two parchment sheets, both sides dusted.
Roll out the dough between the sheets to about 1/4 inch thick.
Tip: To help keep the dough from sticking when you are trying to remove cookies, first peel off the top parchment paper layer, put it back on, gently flip the entire sheet of dough over, and peel off the other side.
Cut out your star cookies and place on the baking sheets. Re-roll dough until it is all used.
Use a spoon to scoop and spread a thin layer of the reserved egg white meringue on top of each cookie.
Decorate each cookie if desired with the remaining almonds (either slices or ground).
Bake the cookies for about 30 minutes until the bottom edges are starting to turn a light golden brown and the white meringue is set (firm).
Turn the oven off, leave the oven door open with the cookies inside and let them sit for 10 minutes to further dry out.
Store the cookies in air tight containers for up to two weeks.
Notes
You need 10 ounces of almonds for the cookies themselves, which will be ground. The remaining almonds are for decorating the cookies. Decorating almonds can be sliced to make the star burst pattern, or also ground up if you want a sprinkle-like effect. You can also skip the decorating almonds altogether if desired and just leave them white.