Cinnamon Stars - a Christmas biscuit/cookie

It's quite cold and grey outside but cozy at home.  Keith the dog is still active as ever but loves to snuggle up in the evening, especially when we have the fire going in the fireplace.  Outside, at this time of year, he really does blend in quite well with nature :-)

Given that Christmas is getting closer and that this time of year always reminds me of home, I have been baking some traditional German Christmas biscuits/cookies: cinnamon stars or "Zimtsterne" as we call these at home.

These biscuits don't have any flour in them whatsoever, so if you have a problem with gluten, they might be a good alternative to other biscuits.  The dough consists mainly of ground almonds with a lovely hint of cinnamon and the topping is like a meringue.  The end result is a biscuit that's crunchy on the outside but still soft in the middle - delcious on a dark winter's afternoon with a cup of tea!

Cinnamon stars - Zimtsterne

Cinnamon stars (makes 25 - 30 biscuits)

These take about 90 minutes to make including resting & baking time.

Ingredients:
for the dough:
1 egg white
75g icing sugar
a little lemon zest (optional)
1 heaped tsp cinnamon
150g ground almonds

for the topping:
1 egg white (or a bit less if possible)
100g icing sugar
a little salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees (or 120 degrees in a fan oven).
2. Line one or two baking sheets with baking paper.
3. For the dough, beat the egg white until forming peaks, adding the icing sugar bit by bit.
4. Add the zest, cinnamon and 125g of the 150g ground almonds by gently folding these into the egg white/sugar mix.
5. Leave the dough to rest in the fridge for 30 - 45 minutes. 
6. Sprinkle the rest of your ground almonds (25g) onto your work surface and roll out the dough to ca. 0.5cm thickness.  If the dough is still very sticky, simply place a piece of kitchen foil/cling film on top and then roll it out.
7. With a biscuit cutter (traditionally a star shape but use whatever you fancy), cut 25 - 30 biscuits out of the dough and gently lift the stars/shapes with the help of a knife onto the baking sheets.
8. For the topping, beat the egg white with the icing sugar and salt to form firm peaks.  Using a pastry brush or knife spread the topping on the biscuits and bake these for ca. 18 - 20 minutes until the meringue topping is cooked but not browned.