A lovely holiday cookie!
| Servings: | 18 |
| Yield: | 3 dozen |
Ingredients
- 2 ⅔ cups finely ground almonds
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ⅓ cup egg whites
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 ¾ teaspoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Stir together the almonds, cinnamon, and lemon zest until combined.
- Beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Slowly sift in the confectioner’s sugar, continuing to beat until the mixture is stiff. Set aside 1/3 cup of the egg white mixture for the glaze. Fold in the almond mixture.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C). Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a surface that has been sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar. Using a 2 1/2-inch star cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place them on the cookie sheets.
- To make the glaze, add the lemon juice to the reserved egg white mixture, stirring until smooth. Brush the tops of the cookies lightly with the glaze. (If the glaze starts to thicken, add a few more drops of lemon juice.)
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. When done, they will be light brown and soft in the center. Remove and cool on wire racks.
Reviews
A very good cookie. I’ve “overbaked” them as well. The 1st time was an accident. Ive made them several times. Some prefer the softer, some prefer the crispier cookie.
Came out great – I rolled the dough out between 2 sheets of parchment paper and used powdered sugar for the work surface to cut out the stars.
Love the recipe just as it is. Yummy!!!
These are great cookies, very similar to the ones my German family used to make when I was young. I read all the reviews and therefore baked them for only 14 minutes, which turned out well. I bought almond flour at the Bulk Barn, so I didn’t have to grind the almonds. As a result, they were relatively quick to make, especially for Christmas cookies. The frosting stayed white for me. The lemon is a nice flavour touch. I also added a smidge of cloves and ginger. I also refrigerated the dough for a short time before rolling it, and that seemed to make it much more manageable. The reason I gave the recipe only 4 stars is that the cookies are very sweet. I wonder if there’s a way to cut the sugar content somewhat. Also, the almonds make the cookies quite expensive.
I read all the previous reviews before starting, since baking gluten free is new to me and I wanted to make these as flavorful and non-crumbly as possible. I bought ground almonds at the local health food store, and use local cage-free eggs (2 gave me exactly what I needed). I took the suggestion of adding 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/2 tsp vanilla, leaving out the lemon juice and peel. Then I did my final mix by hand before chilling the dough overnight (2 hours should be plenty). I rolled only small amounts of the dough at a time, and ended up using bat cookie cutters because that’s what I had. I baked for 8 minutes, put on the glaze, and baked for 10 more. Received rave reviews; people thought they were gingerbread.
These tasted good. I could taste more lemon than cinnamon, but it wasn’t over whelming. My only complaint is the dough. I used a food processor to finely grind up the almonds. I rolled the dough but was unable to use a cookie cutter, the dough just wouldn’t cooperate. They turned out yummy though. I’d like to try again to see how it goes.
The dough was absolutely horrendous
Great taste! Followed recipe except baked for 1/2 the time as suggested by others. Crunchy outside, chewy inside.
From all the recipes I’ve tried this one is the best – BY FAR! I LOVE LOVE LOVE these stars! Yes, it is quite sticky, but I usually have to let it sit for a while anyway and that makes it just perfect! The best part though is the fact that they are GLUTEN FREE – and my husband loves them anyway, which means they must be really, really good!
Temperature was too high and the time too long. First batch were much too crisp. Second batch I reduced temp and still too long. Third batch finally came out OK. Temp at 300 and baked 17 min.
Can these cookies be frozen?
This recipe was easy to follow. The cookies came out amazing! Taste: Delicious, sweet, hint of lemony. Texture: crunchy and chewy. Just be sure to not over bake the cookies, otherwise they will come out too hard. WILL RECOMMEND! Perfect for holidays!
I’ve made this recipe for close to 30 years without the lemon juice or zest, I leave it out as I’m allergic. I always refrigerate my dough for an hour before rolling. I measure my ingredients by a scale. I put the glaze on half way through the cooking time and I bake for only 15 minutes. I also bake these at a much lower temperature only 175.
the dough didn’t form.. was runny
followed the recipe exactly, tops were crunchy hard
These are great tasting cookies! I may bake them a little less next time so they are softer. Great gluten free alternative!
Love the flavor of the cookie, like others i cut my cooking time to 15 min, could have gone a couple of minutes less. I thought the recipe could have more detail. Overall, easy to make, even without a food processor, and great flavor. Thank you for sharing.
Fun and easy to make, very popular even with the wheat-eaters!
Delicious! The lemon gives an unexpected yummmmm. I thought the hardest part was getting all of the ground almonds worked into the meringue mixture. When everything was finally folded in, I didn’t think the dough was too sticky to work with. I did liberally use extra powdered sugar when rolling the dough. I found it helpful to start with a large ball of the dough, and roll it in the powdered sugar first. Then I rolled the dough into a log shape, pressing the dough in on itself (almost like kneading, but not too much) to make sure it didn’t fall apart. At this point, you could just cut the log into slices to bake as round cookies. Or, roll it out and cut with cookie cutters as per recipe. I found I could “knead” the scraps from the cutouts together back into a log again, and roll out again… using powdered sugar as necessary. The most fun of this recipe was painting on the frosting. Again… according to the recipe, I had the perfect consistency, and a little bit more than needed to paint all the cookies. Overall, a little labor-intensive, but so delicious they were worth the effort. After reading several reviews, I did cut the baking time in half. I still came out with brown meringue , but they sure taste great! Oh… and the best part… gluten free for my dear hubby!
I had no trouble at all with the dough. Everything turned out very well except that the baking time is way too long! I baked them for 20min and I didnt keep an eye on them so the glaze turned brown and the cookies were hard. I would recommend cutting the time by half, other than that everything was very yummy.
Easy peasy to make! The dough was a little bit sticky, but you can work with it quite well. 🙂 The smell is heavenly! I would recommend putting them in the oven for a shorter time, like 15 minutes. I think I overbaked my first two sheets a little. Anyway, they taste very good! 🙂 Recommend!