Cinnamon Stars (zimtsterne) German Christmas Cookies

Total Time: 1 hr 40 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr 30 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 350 g icing sugar, for the dough (powdered sugar, and some more icing or regular sugar to sprinkle the surface you work on with,)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 400 g ground almonds (this is a big issue, you can't let them get gummy. i guess in some places you can buy them already g)
• baking paper or parchment paper

Recipe

• 1 separate egg yolks from whites and beat whites until stiff peaks form.
• 2 slowly sift in the sugar and lemon juice, then beat some more for about 8 minutes.
• 3 put aside 4 heaped tablespoons of the meringue - this will be used to top the cookies later on.
• 4 add ground almonds and cinnamon to the remaining meringue and mix well. you might want to add a dash of rum or amaretto.
• 5 cover the dough and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour.
• 6 sit down, relax and have a cup of tea.
• 7 after an hour fetch the dough from the fridge.
• 8 preheat the oven to gas mark 3/160c/320°f.
• 9 sprinkle a surface with confectioners' or regular sugar and roll the dough to approximately 5 mm.
• 10 cut the stars with a star shaped (yes, indeed!) cookie cutter.
• 11 put the stars on the lined baking sheet.
• 12 now get the reserved meringue from earlier. you might have to stir it a bit so it becomes a smooth mix. you also might want to add some more lemon juice. it's a matter of taste.
• 13 now brush the cookies with the topping and bake them for about 8 minutes.
• 14 cool on the baking sheet.
• 15 store in an air-tight tin.
• 16 the cookies should keep for about two weeks.