Ciiiinnamon stars! It wasn’t too easy to find all the ingredients here in Latvia, at least not in the right shape (keyword ground almonds and ground hazelnuts). But I did it! So I could bring a bit more Christmas feeling to Riga and Lithuania. Lithuania because this was the destination for my weekend trip and I decided to bring some cinnamon stars for my couchsurfers there :)

And to be honest I was suprised that nobody in Latvia and Lithuania knows cinnamon stars. And also in bakeries, supermarkets and so on you can’t find them. So I asked Wikipedia which told me: They’re typical German! They come from Swabia, a district in southwestern Germany!

They exist for quite a while. The first people eating them were princesses and princes because cinnamon was a very expensive spice. And also almonds weren’t affordable for everyone. At the same time there’s also a theory saying that monks invented them. It says they were talented baker who discovered early the magic of cinnamon. Doesn’t matter what’s true: The first cinnamon star recipes came definitely from the germanspeaking countries.

Traditionally you prepare cinnamon stars with beaten egg whites. But online you can find a recipe for vegan cinnamon stars which I really liked, so I decided to share it here with you. I mostly invent recipes myself, but not this one. I only changed small things. It’s hard to name a concrete source because you can find this recipe on various blogs and websites. But one example is PETA.

But now get ready for baking delicious swabian vegan cinnamon stars!

Ingredients

For the dough:
200 g powdered sugar
2 tbsp. cinnamon
8 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. lemon juice
150 g ground almonds
200 g ground hazelnuts
1 tbsp. orange zest from a ecological orange

For the icing:
powdered sugar
a little bit of hazelnut milk (or simply water)
a little bit of cinnamon

Mix all ingredients to form a smooth, soft dough. Roll out the dough quite thickly (mine got a bit too think, I think) on surface covered with powdered sugar. Cut the cookies and place them on a baking tray. Heat the oven to 180°C and bake them for 7 to 10 minutes. Be careful, they easily get too hard. So look after them every now and then.

You can start preparing the icing when the cookies are cold. Therefore mix muuuuuuuuuch powdered sugar with just a tiny bit of hazelnut milk and cinnamon. It should be quite viscous, then you can cover the cookies with it. And be patient until they’re really dry, if you put them in a box before that, everything will stick together. I know it from experience ;D

Vegan Cinnamon Stars

Vanessa
Latest posts by Vanessa (see all)