Ingredients

For biscuits
Almond flour 350 g
Granulated sugar 125 g
Whole cane sugar 125 g
Cinnamon powder 1 ½ teaspoon
Egg whites 2
Salt, lemon juice q.s.

For the icing with meringue powder
Icing sugar 125 g
Meringue powder 25 g
Water 15 ml
Lemon juice q.s.
Love Skewers

Method

For biscuits:

Whisk the egg whites with a fork until a liquid mixture is obtained, but with a nice surface foam. Add the salt and lemon juice. In a bowl mix the almond flour, the sugar and the cinnamon together and pour in the egg white mixture, mixing everything until a compact mixture is obtained. If it is too sticky, you can add a little icing sugar or cornstarch. Make a rectangular loaf and put the mixture covered with cling film to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Take the mixture and spread it between two sheets of parchment paper or on the counter with a light dusting of icing sugar, up to a thickness of 5-6 mm.

Use descending star-shaped cutters to shape the biscuits. Using a small round pasta cutter also cut out discs, which will be used as spacers between the stars when assembling the tree. Use all the mixture, cutting other biscuits with square or rectangular cutters, that will become nice gift packages to place next to the tree.

Cook the shaped biscuits in a static oven at 150°C for about 15-16 minutes: when you begin to smell their scent they are ready, take them out when they are still quite soft, they will harden as they cool down.

As soon as you take them out, pierce each biscuit with a toothpick until you get a large enough hole to hold the final skewer: don’t make the hole too large, otherwise the stars will not be very stable.

The icing should be made when the biscuits are completely cold: if you can, prepare them the day before and store them in a tin box.

 

For the meringue icing:

Sift the icing sugar and meringue powder. Then add the lemon juice and, a little at a time, the water, mixing with a whisk until you get a smooth and homogenous cream. The icing is the right consistency when it “writes” and does not sink. If too dense, add a little water at a time, if too liquid add icing sugar a little at a time.

Using a decorating pen (or pastry bag with small nozzle), decorate the biscuits by first drawing the outer edge and then fill the centre, but leave the central hole without icing. Before the icing dries, complete the decoration with small silver balls of sugar.

Once glazed, leave the biscuits to rest for at least 3-4 hours (even better all night), before assembling the tree. N.B.: it is not necessary to glaze the small round biscuits used as spacers because they will be completely hidden by the stars.

 

Plating

Once the icing is completely dry, assemble the tree. Using a Love Skewer, start inserting the stars from the smallest one and continue towards the larger stars in increasing size order, interposing the round discs at each level. The last one to be inserted will be the largest star, which will be the base for the entire structure so that it remains stable on a plate or tray.

The cinnamon biscuit tree is ready: place some biscuits next to the tree and free your imagination by adding some accessories so as to make the atmosphere even more magical!