Easy German Cinnamon Stars and Vanilla Moons

There are countless German cookie recipes but two of our favourite ones are Cinnamon Stars and Vanillekipferl (Vanilla Moons or Crescents).

cinnamon stars sugary egg whites on a sheet of baking paper

I have been living in Ireland for over 14 years now but I kept up some of the German traditions that I grew up with in the 80s and 90s. One of them is baking Christmas cookies.

When our kids were younger I sometimes told a story before baking or crafting something.

A story that’s quite suitable for this cookie recipe is the Grimm fairy tale “The Star Money”.

How long do Cinnamon Stars keep?

In our house not very long. Haha.

But if you wanted to keep them for longer or give them as a present it’s good to know how far in advance you can bake them.

We usually keep them in a cookie tin, plastic tub or glass jar. If you want to gift them to friends and family the easiest option is to place them into transparent plastic bags like these and tie a ribbon around the top.

Stored like this they usually keep for 3 to 4 weeks.

German Cinnamon Stars Recipe

You will need:

300 g Ground Almonds
250 g Icing Sugar
3 Egg Whites
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

cinnamon, eggs in a basket, vanilla extract, ground almonds and icing sugar

Instructions

Step 1: Whisk the Egg Whites

Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add icing sugar to stiff egg whites. For best results you can put the icing sugar through a sieve, but I was a bit too impatient for that today and just gently folded the icing sugar into the egg whites without using the sieve.

beat the egg whites until they are stiff

add the icing sugar to the egg whites — I usually don’t use nail polish but my 14 year old daughter painted my nails today, so I’m proudly wearing it for the photo shoot. 🙂

Step 2: Prepare the Dough

Add the ground almonds, cinnamon and vanilla to the sugar-egg white-mixture.

Step 3: Roll and Cut

On a surface dusted with icing sugar or ground almonds, roll out the dough to about ¼-inch thickness. Use a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cinnamon stars. It helps to wiggle the cookie cutter in the icing sugar or almonds, so the dough doesn’t stick so much to it.

roll out the dough for the cinnamon stars

use star shaped cookie cutters to shape the cinnamon stars

Step 4: Bake

Place the stars on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 30-40 minutes on a very low setting (130-150 C/ gas 2), until the edges are slightly golden. You want to dry rather than bake them.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.