Zimsterne - German Cinnamon Star Cookies

Whip up a batch of German cinnamon star cookies - Zimsterne - that make a great edible Christmas gift. Flavored with cinnamon and covered with a snowy white royal icing, these cookies bring the German holiday tradition to your home!

These sweet almond and cinnamon cookies - Zimsterne - are quintessential German Christmas cookies that you can find in any grocery store and outdoor holiday market throughout Germany and other German-speaking countries such as Austria and Switzerland.

Christmas is not Christmas without these crisp, spicy cookies. It is a German tradition for almost every family to make a batch of this kind of Christmas cookies at home.

But why not bring this tradition to our home? And why not enjoy these cookies all year round?

Jump to:

• What are Zimsterne cookies?
• History of cinnamon star cookies
• Star cookies recipe
• How to shape star cookies
• Why you should try this recipe
• Ingredients
• How to make Zimsterne cookies
• Expert tips
• Frequently asked questions
• Love cookies? Try these next!
• Recipe
• Comments

What are Zimsterne cookies?

Zimsterne cookies or German cinnamon star cookies are crisp, chewy, and spicy star-shaped cookies flavored with cinnamon and topped with a sweet meringue glaze.

Zimtsterne translates in English as "cinnamon stars" from "zimt" meaning cinnamon and "sterne" meaning stars.

Authentic cinnamon stars are made almost entirely of almonds, but with the occasional addition of hazelnuts. It means they are naturally gluten-free, but different varieties exist today.

People usually buy cookies packaged, but nothing beats homemade Zimtsterne cookies filled with a sweet-spicy flavor of cinnamon.

No matter where you are, you can start a unique holiday tradition by baking a batch of star-shaped German Christmas cookies at home.

History of cinnamon star cookies

It is relatively unknown the origin Zimtsterne cookies (aka cinnamon star cookies), but the first written mention dates back to 1538.

It took about two hundred years for these cookies to appear in German cookbooks. Do you wonder why? Cinnamon was an expensive and rare spice at that time. Imported almonds were food for only royalty. That is why both ingredients were associated with once-a-year baking around Christmas time.

Star cookies recipe

To make these cookies, I adapted the Zimtsterne recipe created by the French chef Christophe Felder. I had to tweak the recipe to make it work.

The dough has to be rolled out and cut into star-shaped cookies. Each cookie has to be coated with a layer of white royal icing made from egg whites and sugar.

The chef recommends baking cookies at 355 F/180 C for 20 minutes, but the white icing gets light brown color while baking. You want the meringue to stay as white as possible.

After multiple trials, I suggest baking cookies at 300 F/150 C for 12 to 15 minutes to get the snowy white royal icing on top.

Authentic Zimtsterne cookies almost always have a 6-pointed star shape, but I used a five-star cookie cutter instead of the six-point star cookie cutter.

And if you struggle with a star cookie cutter/s, you can make diamond-shaped cookies instead. Just cut criss-cross lines into the cookie dough to make diamond shapes. Yes, stars and diamond shapes work well.

You can also make triangle-shaped cookies. To do so, cut regular strips 3 cm wide and bevel them to form 2 cm triangles. You can even use non-traditional shapes, such as round ones. Just be creative!

How to shape star cookies

Have you noticed how neat these star cookies are? The dough is not difficult to work with, but cutting out cookies requires some patience, and it is worth it.

Sharp and accurate star points of cookies are due to cutting cookies after the royal icing is spread out.

The Spruce Eats and The Splendid Table recommend cutting stars first and then coating them with the meringue. While cutting cookies, dip a cookie-cutter in hot water between cutouts to facilitate the release of the cookie from the cutter.

Then both recipes call for a small spoon, a small brush, a little butter knife, small offset spatula, or even a toothpick to spread the meringue icing on top of each cookie.

I find that using the above technique, the icing slightly drips over cookie's sides and does not coat cookies evenly, although you can choose this way of cutting cookies if you are short on time.

So, to make cookies beautifully neat, I spread the icing first and then cut cookies. In this case, it is necessary to wash and dry a cookie-cutter often between cutting the shapes.

How to remove cookies from the cookie-cutter? The dough is quite hard, so remove stars from the cookie-cutter by pushing them from underneath. It is a bit tricky, but it works!

If you find the cookie dough is too soft while cutting, bring it back to the fridge for a few minutes and continue.

Both cinnamon star cookies recipes offered by The Spruce Eats and The Splendid Table let the iced cookies dry for about 12 to 24 hours. The cookies are baked the next day.

The recipe below allows you to bake and enjoy cookies on the same day!

Why you should try this recipe

1. German cinnamon star cookies always are a hit at the Christmas cookie exchange. 
2. They are a great opportunity to get together with your family or friends around Christmas time and bake these traditional holiday cookies.
3. Flavored with lots of cinnamon, these cookies bring a festive mood and get a fabulous smell in your home.
4. Packed in a box, they become one of the best edible gifts during the holiday. They will put a smile on your friends' faces when they open their gift boxes.
5. The cookie dough is customizable if you replace ground cinnamon with other powder of your choice. Please have a look at these Heart-Shaped Raspberry Cookies, where I used the same recipe as a base.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for detailed amounts and instructions. I recommend making this recipe as written for the best results. 

Butter: use unsalted softened butter for this recipe. Take it out of the fridge two hours before you start.

Sugar: use granulated or caster sugar.

Ground cinnamon: it is a star-ingredient of cookies. You cannot substitute it with another spice.

Egg: use one large whole egg and one egg white from medium size chicken egg.

Hazelnut flour: use a store-bought hazelnut flour/meal or make ground hazelnuts yourself using a food processor. Use toasted nuts with their skins on for better color and flavor. Be careful of not over-grind hazelnuts; otherwise, you will get nut butter.

Almond flour: use blanched finely ground almond flour and avoid a coarse almond meal. Make sure to spoon almond flour from a container gently into a measuring cup to keep the measurement precision.

All-purpose flour: all-purpose flour is used to make this variation of star cookies.

Icing sugar: make it with a coffee grinder or use a store-bought powdered sugar.

Lemon juice: a few drops of lemon juice are used to make the meringue.

How to make Zimsterne cookies

To make the cookie dough, place softened butter, granulated sugar, and ground cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix (photo 1).

Add the egg, hazelnut, and almond flour and mix again. Finally, add all-purpose flour (use a flour sifter) and mix to combine (photo 2).

Remove the cookie dough from the bowl and form a ball. Rolled the dough out with a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment paper (sprinkled with icing sugar) to the thickness of 0.4 inch/1 cm and refrigerate for 1 hour (photo 3).

To make the white royal icing, whisk the egg white with icing sugar and 3 - 4 drops of lemon juice using an electric mixer (photo 4).

Take the cookie dough out of the fridge and spread a thin layer of royal icing with a bent spatula (photo 5). Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300 F/150 C. Cut out cookie stars with a 2-inch/5 cm star-shaped cookie cutter (I used the smallest five-point star cookie cutter), remove cookies by pushing them underneath and arrange them on a baking sheet covered with the parchment (photo 6).

Bake cookies (and cookie scraps) for 12 to 15 minutes (photo 7). They must be baked, but the royal icing must not color. Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool down (photo 8).

Expert tips

1. Choose a six-point star cookie cutter or a five-point star cookie cutter to make these cookies.
2. Wash and dry a star cookie cutter (if necessary) before cutting the next cookie. It makes cookies neat!
3. If you do not have a star-shaped cookie cutter, make them diamond or triangle-shaped. Feel free to use your favorite but simple cookie cutter.
4. Test and adjust your oven. Do not over bake cookies; otherwise, the royal icing turns brown. You strive to get the icing as white as possible, but a little brown tint can look beautiful, too.
5. The remaining cookie scraps (falls) are not pretty as cinnamon stars, but you could bake them as well. They are delicious!
6. Cinnamon star cookies can be stored in a dry, airtight container in a cool place for up to one month.

Frequently asked questions

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Recipe

The nutrition information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator and is intended for informational purposes only and should be used as a general guideline. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should independently verify it using your preferred tool. Please, read the disclaimers in our Privacy Policy.

The recipe was adapted from http://www.elle.fr. It was originally published on December 28, 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.