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Cinnamon Star Cookies

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cinnamon-stars

Last month I bought a 1965 cookbook Wonderful, Wonderful Danish Cooking. I’m part Danish, so we often like look to Scandinavian cooking for inspiration. In the cookie section I stumbled upon kanelstjerner (cinnamon stars*). This almond cookie recipe is is naturally gluten-free, but the book called for a lot of sugar (2 cups!). For my version I cut the sugar in half, and I used coconut sugar instead of refined cane sugar. This makes the meringue on top a golden brown instead of white. You could use xylitol or maple sugar for lighter tops.

If I owned this house I would make the year-round decor even MORE Scandinavian, but whatcha gonna do 🙂 We added a Swedish candle holder with sustainably-sourced palm oil candles, and my gingerbread cookie tree, which is inspired by kransekake (the ring tree cake).

I love how these cinnamon star cookies came out: a little lemony, soft in the middle and crunchy on the edges. I think they would be great for New Year’s too! And speaking of lemons, our tree is full of them!!!

Cinnamon Star Cookies

Ingredients

4 egg whites (about 1/2 cup)
1 cup coconut sugar
2.5 cups blanched almonds
1 cup almond flour
zest of two lemons
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
  2. Beat 4 egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
  3. Gradually blend the coconut sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest into the whipped eggs. Remove about a cup of the whipped eggs and set aside (to be used as cookie topping).
  4. Add nuts to food processor fitted with an S blade and grind until the nuts are mostly small pieces (some variety in nut size is good).
  5. Fold the roughly ground nuts and the nut flour into the egg batter.
  6. Use a size 40 scoop to make regular-sized balls on the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  7. Flatten the balls with palm of hand.  On the top of each cookie add a dollup of the whipped egg that you saved.
  8. Bake for about 30 minutes

Note: Do not stack the baked cookies. The meringue will stick to the cookies on top. (speaking from experience 😉 )

Makes 18 cookies.

♥, Kelly

P.S. In case you missed it, I created a Spunky Costco Shopping Guide for you!

*Although they are called cinnamon “stars”, the recipe in the 1965 book didn’t make them star-shaped. I did find a couple Norwegian food blogs that had adjusted the recipe to make them star-shaped. My recipe tastes good the way it is, so I didn’t want to mess with it.

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Comments

  1. I live in AZ and I too have lemons in large quantities! I got all excited about the new cookie recipe but then discovered it has almonds in them AND I am allergic to almonds (sad face indeed)

    However, I juice and zest the lemons and freeze them in ice cube trays for future use in cooking and drinks! When lemons cost 75 cents each I just reach for the freezer!

    Happy New Year to you all!

    Elizabeth

  2. In the directions of number 7 is it more whipped egg whites??? Or do you save some from the 4 egg whites?

  3. These look scrumptious! Love lemon ANYTHING!!! Wish I had my own lemon tree! Thanks for thinking of a wonderful way to use up those excess lemons you have! Keep the lemon recipes coming please! Pinning this!

  4. My mother made a cookie that looked very similar to your Kanelstjerner,they were German and my mother called them Pfeffernusse. They were some of my favorites because I loved the meringue texture, light and crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Yum. My mother also made German Zimtsterne which is the German version of the Cinnamon star cookie, only they were star shaped and were crisp and highly cinnamon flavored. Aaaah how nice to reminesce. Thanks for sharing this recipe, it brought back LOTS of childhood memories.

  5. Kelly,
    I have them in the oven now… The smell of lemon zest and cinnamon is like heaven:) I fell in love with the ingredients and honestly I always your recipes are amazing… I never get disappointed with them… Healthy ingredients and amazing taste … What a chef can ask for more??? Thx again and again for sharing!