Having entered into the service of Rome in 1510, the Italian cardinal and politician Lorenzo Campeggio would represent the papacy in England (at around the time Henry VIII was doing away with the Vatican's edicts in favour of his own) and Germany, specifically in Regensburg and Augsburg. In that time he developed a particular expertise in German affairs and a close relationship with the then-Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I. Towards the end of his life in 1538, Campeggio was visited (in Rome, one presumes) by Maximilian I's successor, Charles V, whose dominions stretched from Sicily to the Netherlands. It was at this meeting, so the legend goes, that Campeggio would serve one of Europe's most powerful men Zimtsterne, cinnamon stars, making it the first recorded instance of the biscuit's existence. It would be another 200 years before German recipe books would print instructions for making Zimtsterne at home.
Now very much part of the panoply of Viennese Weihnachtskekse, Christmas cookies, Zimtsterne -- whose shape of course relates to the story of the Three Kings, who (as I remember it) were inspired by the sight of the Star of Bethlehem to travel yonder in search of the supposed Messiah (or something like that) -- are made from but a handful of ingredients: egg whites, icing sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and ground almonds. No fat and no flour, making these lactose- and gluten-free. The egg whites are beaten with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form, and the icing sugar gradually added. Some of this meringue-esque mix is reserved for the icing later and the remainder mixed with the vanilla, cinnamon, and ground almonds to form a dough. (Almond extract or rum extract optional.) The Zimtstern dough is rolled out to 1 cm in thickness, out of which the cookies are cut with a star-shaped cutter. The biscuits are baked in a very low oven for 25 minutes. Once cooled, they are glazed with the reserved egg white-sugar mix.
