Homemade Christmas: Cinnamon Balls

It is almost Christmas. Unbelievable, but so true.
This year I decided to make my Christmas as homemade as possible.
Because I love crafting and doing lots of crafts as decorations and presents
make my day uhmm December. So I try to share one idea for a homemade Christmas with you
as often as possible and hope that you feel inspired, amused or simply festive.
Happy Christmas time to all of you!

After talking so much about food – one of my favourite topics yesterday, I want to share a wonderful easy but super-yummy cookie recipe with you.

Cinnamon balls

I rediscovered the recipe in an old Christmas crafting book of mine (approx. mid 80s by the look of the fashion items ;-)) on Thursday, then I made them yesterday, because my lovely husbands love hazelnuts, and then I found them in Katinka’s blog today. So either cinnamon balls are in fashion – the trendy cookies of the season – or they are just meant to be shared with you.

Here is the original German Brigitte recipe...

... and here is my clumsy translation for all my English speaking readers:

Cinnamon Balls

For about 45 pieces:
3 egg whites
250g icing sugar
2 packet of vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
300g ground hazelnuts
Grease or baking paper for the baking tray
Whole hazelnuts for decoration

1. Beat egg whites with a hand mixer until semi-stiff. Add icing sugar and vanilla sugar and continue beating until the snow is shiny and firm, but still elastic.
2. Remove half a cup of egg white mixture for decoration, then mix the rest with cinnamon and hazelnuts.
3. Make walnut-sized balls out of thus dough with 2 teaspoons (dipped in cold water to stop the mixture from sticking to the spoons) and put them on greased or paper-lined baking tray. Brush egg white mixture onto balls and top with a hazelnut each.
4. Put cinnamon balls in a cold oven (middle shelf) and bake at 130 degrees about 20 min. Take them out of the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.

Voila, that is it. Super-quick, super-easy and I love them.

I added more cinnamon, because for me you cannot use enough cinnamon and I rarely completely stick to recipes. They don’t look as neat as in the recipe book – well, I call them cookies with personality J – but oh man do they taste good. Strongly recommended!