Cinnamon Stars: Zimtsterne (Germany)

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I am a chocolate chip cookie person myself, but these are the best cookies I have ever had, bar none. There are a lot of steps, but it is easy. I used christmas cookie cutters and they looked beautiful, just like the picture.

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I made these for a belated Christmas cookie exchange. I am glad I read the reviews before making them, the suggestions made by others were quite helpful. I received a lot of compliments on how nice the cookies looked, and while we didn't eat them at the cookie exchange, I think these taste great. Neither the taste nor the texture will be like anyone else's cookie. My adaptations included using TONS of confectioners' sugar when rolling out the dough, and rolling them a little thinner than 1/4" (the cookies I rolled to 1/4" puffed up a bit in the oven. I would probably cook them a bit longer than the recommended 30 minutes, my meringue tops were still very white on the first two batches I made. For my third batch, I tried the suggestions of using additional nuts (about 3 ounces extra, and using additional sugar (about 1/4 cup in the meringue. Unfortunately, in that batch I forgot to pull out the 2/3 cup of meringue for the tops, so the dough was really sticky and I had to use a lot of sugar when I rolled anyway. Also, I recommend not pre-heating your oven until after you have put the meringue on, before you place the almonds. Both of those tasks are time-consuming, so your oven will have plenty of time to pre-heat while you are doing them, rather than wasting energy during the whole process. Even with all of the work, I will definitely make these cookies again.

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This recipe was GREAT!

yes...as some said...it was very tedious...but as you are rolling out the dough just use A LOT of powdered sugar and take your time. I also froze the dough for an hour before cutting out the cookies. My advice would also be to pick out your best almond slices before you make the dough. That way you can use them for the decoration.

turned out great and look almost just like the picture. My aunt bit into one and instantly said "just like Grandma Margaret use to make!" It was a great German treat!

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After reading all the reviews and trying the recipe for myself I have come to a conclusion: this recipe is easy! The trick that I found made everything so much simpler is to use vegetable spray on the parchment sheets when rolling out the dough. This eliminates the stickiness almost completely. No need to refrigerate the dough or dip the cutter in hot water. I also sprayed the spatula and that made lifting the cookie and placing it on the cookie sheet as simple as working with sugar cookie dough. I will make this recipe again and do everything the same - will add more almonds and a bit more zest too.

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I have tried 4 recipes from this series of cookies recipes on Food Network. This is by far--the BEST.
I refrigerated the dough in very cold temperatures and this allowed the dough to be easier to work with. The secret is keeping the dough COLD.
I also added some almond flavor and extra almonds --about 1 cup . I think this made the difference.
I also sprinked some sparkling sugar on the meringue in gold and some in blue. Then placed the sliced almonds as pictured in the flower pattern.
I will bake another batch this week.
They are beautiful and outstanding tasting.
This will become one of my treasured holiday recipes.
Thank you Food Network!

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I followed the recipe and they turned out ok. I ran out of meringue and made more. I got tired of everything about this cookie. My daughter found this on line and asked me to help her make them. She left and I was stuck making them. When she returned she wanted to try one, I told her she could try one from the last pan. She never made it, had to go home and sleep. I'm up at 2am just finishing them and I don't like almonds. I can't tell you how they taste. I hope she hates them and won't want to have me help her again.

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I made this cookie last year, "I am not the most patient cookie maker", but I have to tell you this was a great cookie to sit around and nibble on with good coffee chatting with your family. I decided to make the cookie because my son had just spent a year as foreign exchange student in Dresden, Germany. The flavor of this cookie as well as the crisp texture is well worth adjusting to the roll out process. The cookie stores great, so make it early on while you still have time and are not under any stress and you will be happy you did. Nibble and sip, you feel like you are in a European cafe. Ok, so the little slivered almonds on each of the star points were a pain, however, his face made it worth the using tweezers!

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Ok, I should have read the reviews but I looked at the video before and twice during the preparation and it did not prepare me for the mess I was dealing with. I added so much sugar to this recipe to make the dough easier to work with that I thought I would use the whole sack. I am sure they taste great but I could not deal with it any longer.

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I know a lot of people have complained, but these really are worth it. Last year, the first time I made them (strictly following the recipe they were sticky and time consuming. This year I edited the recipe a bit and they were much easier to make and I am not a great baker. First I added about a third of a cup more of sugar to the ground almonds before combining with the meringue and used closer to 13 ounces (almost 3 and a half cups of almonds. This made the dough much stiffer, but less sticky and much easier to work with. After mixing I also used another reviewers idea to freeze the dough (about an hour. The combination of these two worked perfectly. I could easily roll the dough and cut any shape I wanted out. The dough also didn't need much sugar as the flour when rolling and using wax paper worked better than parchment. If I can make these work anyone can! Best of luck if you try them, they really are worth it!

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These cookies weren't too difficult to prep, but getting the dough rolled and cutting out the pieces were tricky. The dough is very sticky and I think I'm going to try freezing it which other people have suggested. Other than that the cookies were amazing! People who normally don't like cookies couldn't wait to have a second cookie. These will definitely be part of my cookie recipe stash!