Baking or creating is always fun. But doing it together with a friend it’s doubled :). Tanja and I made these healthy vegan cinnamon stars last week. As for most of my recipes, they come refined-sugar free, gluten-free and low in fat. However, if you don’t care about a lil more fat, feel free to upgrade your cookies by replacing the water with coconut oil and the almond flour by ground almonds.
In case you forget why we love using natural sweeteners. It’s because they contain more nutrients and have a lower glycemic index than regular sugar. Have 2-4 at a time and you will still feel happy about indulging in sweets :).
Christmas isn’t the time to diet, so, go on, have some healthy cranberry cookies, a 3 ingredient chocolate mousse, or chestnut cookies for dessert.
Benefits of Cinnamon
Did you know that the biggest benefit of consuming cinnamon is its ability to help regulate blood sugar. If you season a higher carbohydrate food with cinnamon, it can help ease the effect of the food on your blood sugar.
Just make sure to get the real cinnamon which is Ceylon Cinnamon. Cassia Cinnamon is another one and also called fake cinnamon. It doesn’t come with the real cinnamon health benefits tho.
Cinnamon is one of the healthiest spices in the world and has been used as a traditional herbal medicine for centuries. It contains antifungal and antibacterial agents which together with its other properties make cinnamon a very potent, antioxidant-filled spice.
Cinnamon is one of the healthiest spices, and said to be:
- Anti-Clotting
- Antioxidant
- anti Inflammatory
- Regulates blood sugar
- Anti-Bacterial and fights infections
- preserves brain function
- 160 g coconut sugar (blended to powder)
- 200 g almond flour
- 50 g tigernut flour (can be replaced by ground almonds)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 8-9 tbsp water
- pinch of salt
- pinch of clove
- peel of 1 small organic orange
- Glaze:
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1 tsp tapioca flour
- orange juice
- blend the coconut sugar until you get powdered sugar.
- transfer sugar into a bowl and combine with the almond and tigernut flour.
- add the cinnamon, clove, lemon juice, salt, orange peel, and water.
- knead until you get a sticky dough.
- roll out the dough and cut out stars.
- bake the stars at 180C for about 5-7 minutes.
- let cool down.
- Glaze:
- for the glaze, blend coconut sugar and tapioca to get powder sugar.
- Once done, whisk together powdered sugar and orange juice (optional: vanilla) until you get a thick consistency.
- using a spoon, coat one side of the stars with the glaze and let dry.
As we learned, there are many reasons to consume cinnamon and enjoy soul food as those healthy vegan cinnamon stars at Christmas :)!
Happy baking, xX
Annelina
[…] aber bei mir ist Zimt besonders in der Weihnachtszeit als Zutat kaum wegzudenken – ob in Form von Zimtsternen, als Topping auf Bratäpfeln oder in meinem Porridge und sogar in herzhaften Gerichten. Nicht nur […]