This year was the third time when I decided to bake the Cinnamon Stars Biscuits for Christmas, so you can imagine this has become one of our favorite recipes! First published by the royal pastry chefs in 2019, the Cinnamon Stars Recipe is not very complicated to make and brings many festive smells into your kitchen (think almonds and oranges together!)

Here is the original Cinnamon Stars recipe from Buckingham Palace, along with some personal modifications!

Ingredients:

360g Icing Sugar
85g Egg White
20g Lemon Juice
300g Ground Almonds
115g Mixed Peel
½ Lemon, zested
12g Ground Cinnamon
¼ tsp Ground Cloves

Instructions:

1. Blitz the mixed peel into a paste-like texture and set aside.
2. Whip the icing sugar and egg white with lemon juice into a soft peak meringue. Take 1/3 out and keep aside to top the dough with a thin layer later.
3. Add all remaining ingredients into the larger part of the meringue and combine to a dough-like texture.
4. Knead the dough together with your hands and flatten it onto a baking paper-lined baking tray. Placing a sheet of baking paper on top, roll it down to about 1cm thickness.
5. Remove the paper from the top and spread a thin layer of meringue over the dough. Keep it as smooth as possible.
6. Rest the dough sheet in the fridge for 1 hour.
7. Remove the dough from the fridge and start cutting it into shapes with a knife or cutters. Be creative. Stars & Diamond shapes work well. 8. To use the cinnamon star cutter or round cutter, a bowl of hot water is required. Dip the cutter into the water first and in between cutting the shapes. This helps to release the cookie easily from the cutter.
9. Bake in the oven at 160C fan for 12-15 minutes. The best is to bake with bottom heat only so that the top stays white and does not discolor. The cookie is baked when you are gently able to lift the edges of the paper. The center should still be soft and sticky. Leave to cool for about 30 min before removing from tray. Keep in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of The Royal Family.

READ MORE: How to dry orange slices for decorations

Variations:

Ground Almonds – I used Almond Flour; sometimes you need more flour for the dough to get the right texture, so have more flour ready. One year I didn’t have Almond flour left, so I used regular flour instead. The biscuits turned out perfectly fine.

Mixed Peel – if you don’t find Mixed Peel, you can replace it with Orange Marmelade (mine was also having pieces of candied oranges inside, so it was perfect).

Spices – I like to mix spices and play with the flavors, and because I love Cardamon so much, I replaced the Cloves with ¼ teaspoon Cardamon, and I almost doubled the Cinnamon quantity.

Cutter shapes – because it was Christmas, I played with all the Christmas cutter shapes I had. Stars looked lovely (and best for the meringue topping), but reindeer, hearts, and trees were a hit too!

Meringue – I didn’t use meringue on all of them because I think in time, the biscuits with meringue don’t last so well (and I also loved simple biscuits).

This became a family recipe, and it’s also toddler approved. We took the biscuits with us to New York on our Christmas trip this year, and they survived two plane rides and one week there!

Have you tried this recipe? What went well, and what went not so well? Let me know in the comments below!

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