Twinkle, twinkle little star!
The key ingredient to low-carb cinnamon star cookies is cinnamon. It is one of those ultimate Christmas spices, so naturally you should make some cinnamon cookies to get into the holiday cheer and Christmas spirit. Cinnamon stars are therefore a very traditional German Christmas cookie and oh so tasty. Like all festive treats, they contribute to the all-time favorite New Year’s resolution being made: to lose weight. Therefore, these cinnamon stars are a low-carb and sugar-free version of this classic sweet.
The recipe for low-carb cinnamon star cookies does not use regular sugar, but a sugar alternative. I list xylitol or coconut sugar, as they are my preferred ones and I highly recommend using one of the two. You can also use stevia if you like (in that case, double the amount) or erythritol. Be careful with the latter, as it can have a laxative effect.
These low-carb cinnamon star cookies are best for quick consumption, although you can of course also store them. In that case, as they tend to get hard relatively quick, store them with an apple, which will give them some moisture and thus keep them from hardening up.
At a glance
- Servings: 25-30 cookies (approx. 2 baking trays)
- Calories per serving: approx. 108 kcal
- Preparation time: 30 min
- Oven time: 11-13 min
- Total time from start to finish: 45 min
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites
- 14 ounces (400 grams) of ground almonds
- 1 cup (8.5 ounces/240 grams) of powdered sugar alternative like xylitol or coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla aroma or 1 vanilla pod
- A pinch of salt
Preparation of low-carb cinnamon star cookies
Start by adding the egg white to a large bowl and whisk it until stiff. Sieve in the powdered sugar alternative and carefully fold it in. Place 5-6 tablespoons of the egg white/sugar blend aside in the fridge. You will need it later as a topping for the cinnamon stars. Next, fold in the almond ground, cinnamon spice, vanilla, and salt until you achieve evenness in the dough.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit/150 degrees Celsius and prepare two baking trays with parchment paper. As the dough is super sticky – and I DO mean that – we’ve gotta proceed with caution when it comes to rolling it out.
Essentially, you have two options. Place a silicon mat or a large sheet of plastic wrap on your kitchen counter, drizzle a bit of powdered sugar alternative on top, then lay the dough on it and either wrap the kitchen roll with plastic wrap or place a large sheet of plastic wrap on top of the dough. I tend to opt for wrapping the kitchen roll. Btw, if you don’t have a kitchen roll, use a water or wine bottle. Roll out the dough until it is about ¼ inch/0.5-1 centimeter-thick.
Now you have a tough choice to make: which cookie cutter shape will it be? The traditional star shape, a Christmas tree, a reindeer, an elephant, or all of them in rotation? Cut out the cookies and place them on the baking trays. One great hack to avoid the dough sticking to the cookie cutter is setting it in water in between cookie cutting. Afterwards, use a cooking brush, apply the cold egg white from the fridge as a topping, and then bake the cookies for 11 minutes if you have 30 cookies or 13 minutes if you have 25 (as they are a little larger and thus need a bit longer).
When you take the cookies out of the oven, let them cool down on a cooling rack. They should be ready for serving after only 15 minutes.
Image gallery on how to prepare low-carb cinnamon star cookies
