ZIMTSTERNE (CINNAMON STARS) — CREATING HEALTHY TIMES

Thanksgiving is over and, suddenly, Christmas time is here. I know everybody seems to start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving but I don’t know why. I like to enjoy Thanksgiving as a fall festival and then move on to the Christmas time with the first of Advent. Therefore, Christmas decorations show up at my house no sooner than Black Friday. As for the music, well, I do make a few exceptions here because it is so hard to wait! So, here we are again, decking up the halls and getting ready for all of the goodies that come with this festive time of the year.
Christmas time in Germany spans from the first of Advent to December 26th. These weeks are filled with Christmas partys, Christmas market, Glühwein, Stollen, Fruitcake, and numerous varieties of Christmas cookies. I especially loved when we got together with the neighborhood moms and children to make holiday crafts for decorating the house. I never got bored spending countless hours on dark afternoons making the most beautiful stars, ornaments, candle holders, painting nutshells golden or stringing gold wire around wreaths, making stars from gold foil or transparent paper. As I grew older, I kept that tradition and, during my time as a dental student, me and my female friends would get together to make wreaths, bake cookies, play instruments, and sing German Christmas songs. With my own children, we continued crafting, baking, and singing year after year.

These gatherings always included drinking hot chocolate and sampling home-made Christmas cookies that were already stored in numerous tin cans to sweetened this special time of the year. From when I was a little girl, I had enjoyed baking these delicious and pretty goodies and, over the years, had collected a huge amount of special recipes.

This all changed abruptly when I went on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) over ten years ago. I could no longer eat any of my favorite Christmas treats. For the first few years, I kept baking them for my family and friends but although I loved how they enjoyed them, I came to the conclusion that sugar and flour had lead to my numerous health issues (you can read about this in my ABOUT ME section) and were not a healthy and nutritious choice for their bodies either. Over the years, I experimented with the ingredients allowed on SCD and former recipes to find ways to recreate some of our old favorites in a healthier way. I must admit that it was a little tricky at first and some great recipes definitely were lost to us but we now do have a good variety of delicious new “old favorites” that the kids keep asking for year after year and my husband indulges in when he writes articles in the silence of the night.

INGREDIENTS
for the Italian meringue:
3 egg whites
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp lemon juice

for the dough:
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups natural almond flour
coconut flour

tools:
stand mixer or hand mixer, star cookie cutters, parchment paper, rolling pin

INSTRUCTIONS
for the Italian meringue:
Place the egg whites in the bowl off a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. With the whisk attachment of the stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the lemon juice and continue whisking until stiff peaks form.

At the same time, add the honey to a small saucepan and heat over high heat until it starts boiling. Do not stir. Lower the temperature, insert the candy thermometer, and keep an eye on the boiling honey until it reaches 240° F / 115° C. As soon as the honey reaches the correct temperature, immediately remove the pot from the stove.

Slowly add the honey to the egg whites by pouring it down the inner side of the mixing bowl while continuously whisking the egg whites at high speed. Continue to whisk the mixture until it doubles in volume and turns very shiny and stiff.

Set aside 3/4 cup for the frosting.

for the dough:
Add the natural almond flour, cinnamon, and vanilla extract to the meringue and stir carefully to combine. Add additional natural almond flour if the dough is very sticky. Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is about 1/4” thick. Cut out the shapes with cookie cutters and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. You can dip the cookie cutters in some coconut flour to prevent the dough from sticking to them.

Cover the cookie surfaces with meringue frosting using a knife or pastry brush.

Bake at 200° F / 100° C for 35 to 40 minutes.

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