Time: 1 Hour

Serves: They are Christmas cookies so it’s really up to you: )

Ingredients:

• 550 grams Almond Flour
• 4 Egg Whites
• 1 ½ Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 500 grams Powdered Sugar
• 30 grams Cinnamon

I must admit that I never have been and never will be a huge fan of baking. I love the whimsical creativity of cooking which allows you to add a pinch of this and a dash of that. The lure of getting lost in a sauce that turns out perfectly and then the realization that you have no idea how you made it and you’ll never be able to replicate it ever again.

Baking on the other hand, is closer to chemistry than to cooking. It is precise, methodical, and easily messed up. And German baking is especially so. One look at the recipes in my husband’s German cookbook and the thing was decidedly shut as I declared I would never measure grams of flour on a scale and follow a 16-step instruction manual to make a simple cake. However, the inevitable Christmas came when, due to his call schedule at the hospital, we could not make it back to Germany for the holidays and would be spending Christmas without family. To make this slightly less painful I braved the great book of German pastries and baked goods and managed to muddle through his favorite cookie recipe.

I have since tampered with it slightly to make it a bit easier to follow (my sincere apologies to the nation of Germany!) but I must admit there is a beautiful and delicious simplicity in this recipe which will leave your family begging for more.

And as you may see above, with only 5 ingredients, none of them being flour, you can proudly declare to your foodie friends that this holiday favorite is gluten free!

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 285 degrees Fahrenheit (140 Celsius.) Yup, I know it’s a weird temperature. Just go with me on this.

In a stand mixer, beat the egg whites on high until they are stiff. I mean very stiff. They should stand up on their own on a fork. Turn the speed to low and begin sifting in your powder sugar. Once all the sugar is sifted in you should have a thick glaze which looks like really shiny icing. Spoon five heaping tablespoons out of your mixture and set in the fridge for later. (Do not leave it on the counter. It needs to be cold!)

Mix the cinnamon, lemon juice and almond flour into the remaining sugar mixture. The mixture should come together into a thick dough. Scoop the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll it into a ball. Wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Once your dough has chilled take it out of the fridge and roll it out on a flat surface. This is the only time in the whole recipe when I advise using bread flour. Almond Flour is coarse and doesn’t work well for the rolling process. If you are determined to be gluten free go with God and use the remaining almond flour. Otherwise, dowse your dough and rolling pin in a bit of bread flour and don’t tell anyone.

The traditional German recipe is strictly for making stars. I did try to cut out a different shape one time and my husband firmly declared that was against the rules of German culture. Feel free to use whatever cooking cutter shape you would like. Be advised the dough is thick! As such I would not suggest using very complex shapes with lots of small ridges and parts.

Roll your dough about 1/3 of an inch thick, cut out your stars and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I would advise using parchment paper instead of simply spraying the pan with cooking spray as you will have to pick them up part way through the backing process.

Bake for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes the cookies should be baked enough that they hold their shape when you pick them up but remain quite gooey inside. Working quickly, remove the reserved sugar icing from the fridge and ice the tops of the cookies. I use a small, meat basting brush, which tends to work perfectly. This is why it is so important for your icing to be chilled. The trick is to get them iced, back in the oven, and baking again before the icing has time to melt. The parchment paper should enable you to lift the cookies quickly off the tray, so you can work with ease, but properly chilled icing is key.

Once the cookies are iced, place them back in the oven for the final 5 minutes. The icing should bake onto the tops of the cookies to make a hard shell, but should not brown. If the icing is still runny after 5 minutes leave them in for another minute or two, checking frequently. If the icing begins to turn brown before 5 minutes are up, remove them early.

Allow cookies to cool for 5-10 minutes and serve. The perfect, gluten free, delightfully delicious, properly German, holiday treat awaits.

Guten Appetit!