It's time for very special sugar free Christmas cookies! Cinnamon Stars are traditional German Christmas cookies. My version is nutty, chewy and just as delicious as the original. You would never guess these are low carb, diabetic Christmas cookies!
The holiday season is here and with it all the wonderful food I look forward to all year: Turkey, my keto stollen, this low carb panettone and keto gingerbread cookies.
There's one recipe that is always right on top of my to-bake list: Cinnamon Stars. I adored them when I grew up in Germany. And to this day, Christmas wouldn't be the same without "Zimtsterne".
To turn the original recipe into a no sugar Christmas cookie recipe, all I had to do is replace the icing sugar with a powdered sweetener.
They are so easy and beyond yummy!
"You've created a cookie that everyone in my family likes! Even the selective eaters!" (Sarah)
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🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy recipe - 4 main ingredients
- Fun to make - A lovely family activity. Get the kids involved!
- Soft and moist texture - You can bake these until crunchy, but I prefer them when the inside is still moist. This way, they taste like marzipan.
- The flavor! Nutty and sweet, with lots of cinnamon
- Naturally gluten-free
- Sugar free, suitable for diabetics and keto friendly. Just 1.2 grams of net carbs per portion.
- Low in fat - These cookies do not require butter. Only 76 calories per cookie.
Ingredients
- Almond flour. I used ground almonds, which is the same as regular almond flour. Almond meal (ground almonds with skins on) would give a more rustic finish. If you're using super-fine almond flour you may need to reduce the amount by ¼ cup.
- Powdered sugar substitute. This is what we add instead of icing sugar. I used powdered erythritol. You could use powdered Swerve, monk fruit sweetener, Bocha Sweet, xylitol or powdered allulose as well.
- Egg whites. Make sure your eggs are very fresh.
- Cinnamon
- Ground coffee. This is ground filter coffee. A sprinkle of powdered instant coffee granules should also work. You don't have to add it, but I think it really lifts the flavor.
Instructions
Let me show you how I make the ultimate (German) keto Christmas cookies!
This section contains step-by-step instructions and photos that show how to make this recipe. See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities
STEP 1
Start by beating the egg whites in a mixing bowl until they hold soft peaks. Slowly mix in the powdered sweetener until the mixture is stiff.
STEP 2
Add the almond flour and spices and stir until combined.
Form a cookie dough ball and roll it out between 2 sheets of baking paper. Place in the freezer to chill.
STEP 3
Remove from the freezer, lift the top baking paper sheet and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
Re-roll until all cookie dough is used up.
Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven until golden.
STEP 4
Stir together powdered sweetener and water to make sugar free icing.
Spread the icing over the fully cooled cinnamon stars.
Katrin's Top Tips
#1 Chill the dough. This is an essential step and it makes it so much easier when cutting out the cookies. If the dough becomes too soft to work with, just pop it back in the freezer for a while.
#2 Give them room. Leave 1 inch of space around each cookie as they can spread a little. Use 2 baking sheets if necessary.
#3 Use a piping bag with a tiny nozzle for a "professional" finish when icing. Alternatively, simply use a brush to ice your cookies.
Variations
No icing. These sugar free Christmas cookies taste just as good solo.
More spices. Add a 3rd teaspoon of cinnamon. Some traditional recipes add lemon zest, so that's an option. I'm also a huge fan of nutmeg (¼ teaspoon) and cardamom (¼ teaspoon). Option to also add a pinch of salt.
Hazelnut flour. This is an option if you can't have almonds.
Traditional "Zimtsterne" icing: Instead of icing, traditional cinnamon stars are topped with a meringue that is baked. Basically, you hold back some of the egg white and sugar mix, which is brushed over the cookies before baking. This is what I did in my original recipe using egg white and sweetener.
However, I found the meringue topping separates from the cookies after baking. That's why I have changed the recipe to sugar free icing, which I'm adding after the cookies are baked.
I have successfully made keto meringue cookies though - head over to the post to check them out.
Recipe FAQs
No, because it wuld make the cookies taste gritty. But you can powder it at home in a food processor. Just wait a minute or 2 before you open the lid of the food processor so the mini snowstorm inside can settle.
Roll them out thinner and bake them longer. Also, for crispy cookies use erythritol over any other sweetener.
Roll the dough out thick and bake for a shorter time.
Absolutely! Make a large batch and share the sugar free love.
No. You would have to change the flour amount and probably also add a fat such as butter or coconut oil.
Storage
Kitchen counter: My cookies never last longer than 1 week. However, they should be fine for a minimum of 2 weeks at room temperature in an airtight container. There is no need to store them in the fridge.
Freezer: I recently remade this recipe because I added it to my Keto Cookies Cookbook, and we did freeze them after our taste test. They are good for up to 3 months.
And here is one of the original images I used for this blog post:
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Recipe
Sugar Free Christmas Cookies (German Cinnamon Stars)
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups / 250g almond flour or ground almonds
- ½ cup / 90g powdered sweetener
- 2 egg whites large
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground coffee (optional)
Sugar Free Icing
- ½ cup / 90g powdered sweetener plus 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150 Celsius / 300 Fahrenheit.
- Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Slowly mix in the powdered sweetener until the mixture is stiff.
- Add the almond flour and spices and stir until combined.
- Form a dough ball and roll it out around ½ to 1 centimetre thick between 2 sheets of baking paper.
- Place in the freezer to chill for around 15 minutes. This is an important step - it makes cutting out the dough much easier.
- Remove from the freezer, lift the top baking paper sheet and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for about 12-15 minutes.
- Let cool completely, then ice with sugar free icing.
Nola GREEN
I shall try these. My husband loves Stollen and since starting Keto we have rationed ourselves. Do you have a recipe for this delicious Christmas delight. Husband was born in Austria but lives in Australia. We follow many of your recipes sometimes hard to find some ingredients. Son lives in UK and can't wait to stroll through your supermarkets when we are visiting next.
Katrin Nürnberger
Hi Mola, I'm posting a Stollen recipe this weekend. I've just eaten a slice, in fact! Please join my newsletter so I can let you know when it's published.
Kay
Fröhliche Weihnachten Katrin! I just made these cookies and they were delicious! I saved the majority of the batch to enjoy for tomorrow - Weihnachtstag.
Anna Funnell
Made these as a keto version of gingerbreadmen for my son to decorate a few for me for his Christmas gift (a longstanding tradition now) and they are yummy without icing but absolutely delicious with! Okay, that's real sugar icing but hey, it's Christmas so what the hell for a few days and 4 biscuits! The rest will be iced with Erythritol later. Anyway, just wanted to say they taste to me exactly like the proper German biscuits a friend used to get us every year - really takes me back to my childhood. 🙂
lucy
Do you have a substitute for almond flour as we have a nut allergy. Could I use coconut flour or buckwheat?
Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger
You can try replacing with a 50/50 mix of sesame flour and sunflower seed flour. Those 2 work well as a 1: substitution for almond flour. Using 1/3 the amount of coconut flour may also work (I have not tried it though) - the result may be more brittle.
Tricia Evans
How many sevings does this make? Imsending Christmas cookie gifts fir a family if 3 and a family of 2?
Katrin Nürnberger
Depends on how hungry you are! I calculated the nutrition per 1 cookie. For a gift, I would make 2 batches and give one each to each family, so you can put them in a pretty bag.
Sarah
Holy cow! You've created a cookie that everyone in my family likes! Even the selective eaters
Katrin Nürnberger
My mix made 50 cookies 🙂
Greg Wallace
Tried recipe for the first time last night and they came out good. However, the icing wasn’t enough to cover all the cookies. I’m thinking about making some extra egg whites and sweetener. Trying to get my son with autism to try these and i need some more “visible” icing to get him to try them. Thanks for the recipe.
Katrin Nürnberger
Glad you like the cookies! If you have already baked them, you can also make a simple icing with only powdered sweetener and a splash of water. Just brush over and let dry!
Ivka
Hello. How would you store this cookies and how long they can be stored for? I would love to make them for Christmas but I am not sure if they will last that long.
Katrin Nürnberger
Mine have never lasted long But I'd say they would probably be good for 2 weeks?
Heather
Can I leave out the coffee? Any suggestion on a substitute? Thanks !
Katrin Nürnberger
Of course you can leave out. Any Christmas spices such as ground cardamom or a pinch of nutmeg and cloves would work, too
Katrin Nürnberger
Hi Marlayna, it's a typo - so glad you spotted it! It's supposed to be cm, not cam - as in centimetres. The cookies should be around 1/2 cm thick 🙂