Cinnamon Stars

It’s fall now (the weather today convinced me to finally stop wearing tank tops) and that means I get to start all of my favorite fall traditions. These include staining my fingers permanently black from Inktober, visiting Spirit Halloween every weekend but never buying anything because I’m cheap, carving my pumpkins with the same obsessive perfectionism I apply to the rest of my life, and Zimtsterne.

Zimtsterne, or cinnamon stars, are a German cookie. Those of you in German 4 can attest that Sterne means star in German. Technically, these are a Christmas cookie, but I’m really good at ignoring things like that, so Zimtsterne are a part of mylife from October to March. Imagine a cookie somewhere between chewy and crumbly, baked with cinnamon almond flour instead of regular flour, and dipped in sugar glaze. That’s Zimtsterne. They’re star shaped (duh) and the most delicious thing EVER.

Zimtsterne is sort of a passion of my dad’s. That, and guacamole. Those are the two recipes he’s devoted his life to perfecting. He makes them all the time (like every weekend) and is always fidgeting with tiny things to try to improve it. The recipe in the book is covered in random contradictory scribbles.

Regardless, I’ll write the recipe from the actual book here, with summaries of some of my dad’s annotations in red, and if you want to make them, you can experiment with them yourself. Have fun.

1.   Whisk 3 egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff. (Easiest way to get yolks out is just by using your hands. Also, NEVER NEVER NEVER whisk with a mixer. It makes them too light. Use a fork and sheer muscle power – takes longer, but definitely worth it.)

2.   Mix in 2 cups icing sugar.

3.   Set aside ½ cup of mixture as icing. (no fridge! Outside on patio works best!)

4.   Mix in 1½ tbsp. of cinnamon, ½ tbsp. lemon juice (basically one squirt), and four cups ground almonds until a dough is formed.

a.   SIDENOTE: ground almonds = almond flour from Trader Joe. No grocery store in CU (and I mean NO grocery store, we’ve looked) sells almond flour or ground almonds of the proper consistency. The perfect flour is somewhere between the coarsest almond flour in CU and the finest ground almonds. It’s really annoying. You have to travel to get the flour. Or just grind up your own, but our processor is really finicky.

b.   I recommend our method – go to Trader Joe’s once a year and buy all of the almond flour they have in stock. That stuff never expires. It’s literally an entire shelf of our pantry.

5.   Roll out dough (dust surface with powdered sugar, not flour. Flour ruins things.)

6.   Cut out with star shaped cutters (we have 4 different sizes. Really, just one is acceptable, but it’s more fun when they’re all different sizes.)

7.   Put on baking sheet with non-stick paper.

8.   Ice cookies with remaining sugar mixture (do NOT let dry beforehand)

9.   Thenleave to dry (the book says 6-12 hours, 2-4 days is better)

10.Preheat oven to 45 Fahrenheit.

11.Bake for 3-5 minutes. (Check @ 3, check @ 5, can go up to seven)

12.Let cool (at least 12 hours).

13.Now transfer in AIR-TIGHT containers to refrigerator (2 days is the lower limit, 1-2 weeks with no air is when they hit their prime chewiness and have the best flavor).

If you want to, you can add sprinkles or more icing decorations or whatever, but we never do. They’re best when they’re kept simple.

                                                                       

Sorry if this blog post seemed rambling, but these are literally the most perfect fall cookie ever designed and everybody needs to know about them.