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Cinnamon Stars

Cinnamon Stars are star-shaped almond cookies flavored with cinnamon and sweetened with dark brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cinnamon Stars

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites, dark brown sugar, and cinnamon for 20 minutes.

  2. Set aside 4 tablespoons of the mixture.

  3. Add the grated almonds to the remaining mixture and stir well.

Shape and bake

  1. Dust a clean surface with powdered sugar and roll out the dough.

  2. Use a star cutter to cut out shapes and place a small amount of the reserved mixture on each star.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) and let cool in the pans before removing.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped with the sugar to add air and bind the dough into a light, sturdy mixture.
Dark brown sugar
Sweetens the cookies and adds moisture and a molasses-like depth of flavor.
Grated almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty texture of the dough.
Cinnamon
Gives the cookies their characteristic warm, spiced aroma.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites and sugar for 20 minutes. Long beating incorporates air into the egg whites and dissolves the sugar, which gives the dough its structure and lightness. Under-beating leaves a dense dough that spreads or bakes flat.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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