Zimtsterne

Cinnamon Stars

The classic Swiss Christmas star: almond and cinnamon dough under a snow-white icing.

A Christmas classic all over Switzerland

From the kitchen ofSylvia Brunner Reichen

From the Valley EchoWinter 2019/2020

A white-glazed Zimtstern standing in front of a small stack of cinnamon stars, with fir branches and soft Christmas lights behind

Zutaten

Ingredients

Tick off ingredients as you go.

Nährwerte

Nutrition · per star

Energy	297 kJ / 71 kcal
Fat	3.1 g
of which saturates	0.3 g
Carbohydrate	8.6 g
of which sugars	8.5 g
Fibre	0.7 g
Protein	1.8 g
Salt	0 g

Estimate for the original amounts, per star. Salt added to taste is not included. Calculated from the Swiss Food Composition Database (V7.1, FSVO).

Zubereitung

Directions

1
Beat the egg whites, then mix in the sugar. Add the finely ground almonds and the cinnamon and quickly stir into a dough.
2
Roll out about ½ cm thick, cut out stars and place them on a buttered and floured baking tray.
3
Let them dry for a few hours.
4
Mix the icing ingredients and glaze the stars.
5
Bake for about 15 minutes at low heat in a preheated oven.

“An old recipe from my mother. I love them.”
From the kitchen of Sylvia Brunner Reichen

En Guete!

Bon appétit · Buon appetito · Bun appetit · Enjoy your meal

First published in the Arizona Swiss Society's Valley Echo newsletter, Winter 2019/2020.

A bit of history

Geschichte

Where Zimtsterne comes from, gathered from reliable sources such as the Culinary Heritage of Switzerland inventory.

German baking researcher Irene Krauss dates the cinnamon star to the 16th century, when cinnamon was very precious: when Emperor Charles V came to Rome in 1536, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio served a meal whose twelfth course included cinnamon stars. Recipes appear in German cookbooks only in the 18th century, and in Swiss ones from the second half of the 19th. Basel's Johanna Von der Mühll counted Zimtsterne, alongside Basler Leckerli, Brunsli and Mailänderli, among the typical Christmas biscuits of Basel's bourgeois families. Making them took effort: Rosina Gschwind's 1892 recipe has sugar and egg white stirred for an hour.

Sources