Zitronenherzen, Gluten-Free Almond Lemon Hearts Cookies

Zitronenherzen are delightful gluten-free lemon hearts cookies, for Christmas cookie plates, gifting, and perfect for Valentine’s day too!

These lemon heart cookies are awesome! They were part of our Mama’s Christmas cookie collection when I was growing up and have always been among my favorites! They are deliciously lemony and refreshing, they look pretty, they are a soft and a bit chewy, and are super easy to make. And Zitronenherzen can be used for many occasions other than Christmas. I’ve been making them countless times and they are always part of my Christmas cookie bake-athon.

These Lemon hearts are made with nutrient-dense almond meal and unrefined panela sugar. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I like to focus on posting recipes that are healthier, wholesome and taste great, and I think these cookies fit in quite well after doctoring with the original recipe a little. And they are so easy, let’s make a batch!

If you like this recipe, may I recommend my Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars), which are also gluten-free. And you must try the delightful Vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) made with einkorn flour and almonds! If you are a fan of healthy treats, you’ll love my Spicy Lemon & Honey Tahini Cookies, and for some guilt-free dessert indulgence, Lemon Cheesecake Mousse and Panna Cotta With Raspberry Sauce.

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German Zitronenherzen (Gluten-Free Almond And Lemon Heart-Shaped Cookies)

When I was growing up in Germany, my mom and grandma, and all my aunts and older cousins, were always busy in the kitchen starting the last week of November pretty much till Christmas. They were making dozens of varieties of Christmas cookies and fruit breads, destined for spectacular cookie and dessert platters. These were served to family and friends during the Advent season and on Christmas. And they filled countless cookie tins to be given as gifts. 

Most of these were German gingerbread (Lebkuchen), lots of shaped cookies with frostings and fillings, and many nut-based ones with cinnamon and mace flavors. 

One year my Mom started to make these lemon cookies and added them to our usual Christmas cookie collection. I was an instant fan.

I believe she found this recipe in the old “Dr. Oetker Backen Macht Freude”, a cookbook that was found in many German kitchens, and which was first printed in the 60s. Or maybe it was in one of Dr. Oetker’s little christmas cookie recipe pamphlets that we had stacks of.

And so that Advent season, the new flavor of lemon in a heartshaped cookie, showed up on our cookie platters. It was such a refreshing and different taste among the more ginger-bready types of cookies and jam-filled treats that dominated. 

And, while in those days, gluten-free was not a word, these cookies are naturally perfect for a gluten-free diet. And they can be made healthier, yet no less delicious, with less and unrefined sweeteners.

I saved the recipe back then, and still love to make these little heart shaped cookies, that are so delicious and adaptable. They are not only great for Christmas, but also for Valentine’s day or birthdays too, or for making decorated egg cutouts for Easter, and Fourth of July treats. Plus they pair wonderfully with my cultured Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce recipe for a delicious dessert.  

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Zitronenherzen, lemon hearts taste fantastic!

• So adaptable and great for all kinds of occasions like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Birthdays, Fourth of July, or as a topping or side for desserts and for snacks anytime.

• They make great gifts in little tins.

• Great for using egg-yolks leftover from making meringue based cookies or treats.

• Healthier when you use unrefined sweeteners and cut down on the sugars. And they can easily be colored with beet powder (no, you won’t taste the beets) or other vegetable powders. No need to add toxic food coloring!

• They are delicious without the frosting if you want to stay away from refined sugar, or make a golden color frosting with powdered panela sugar!

• Nutrient dense with protein and healthy fats from almond flour.

• Zitronenherzen are quick and easy to make with purchased almond flour. 

Tips and substitutions For Making Zitronenherzen

• These Zitronenherzen are super easy to roll out, but it helps to put the dough into the refrigerator for half an hour to firm it up a bit after mixing, just to make cutting out easier. Then roll into a flat disk between two sheets of parchment with a sprinkling of almond flour to prevent sticking.

• Fix sticky cutout shapes: Dip your cutout shapes into almond flour, powder sugar, or cold water between cuts to keep the dough from sticking.

• Lemon Flavor: You can use lemon extract instead of lemon oil to flavor these, and you can also use a teaspoon of lemon zest instead.

• Make your own almond flour by blanching almonds (dip in boiling water, drain and slip the skins off. Then grind in a rotary grinder or food processor.

• Two-tone colored Zitronenherzen: If you want to use two colors on one heart, add the second color while the first is still wet and before it starts to crust over. Or you can wait till it’s all dry and then add the second color. I prefer the first method. I find that a toothpick works great for thin accent lines or dots. 

• Sugar substitutes: I love panela sugar, also known as jaggery or sucanat. This is the unrefined sap of the cane sugar plant. Just like with maple syrup, it gets reduced to a concentrate, which not only increases the sweetness, but also retains the heat-stable nutrients that are present in the plant’s sap with nothing removed. All the healthy molasses stays in the sugar.
  
  This sap is then dried and sold as crystals or in block form. I recommend getting the crystals. This sugar has a strong molasses flavor. Coconut sugar is a great alternative to panela sugar with similar strong flavors.
  
  If you prefer something more neutral but don’t want to use GMO white beet sugar, give evaporated cane juice crystals a try. They are partially refined, but still retain some of the original nutrients and if you choose organic, you can avoid the toxic pesticides that are generally sprayed on sugar cane at the point of harvest.
  
  All these sugars are easy to grind in a coffee grinder. The original recipe calls for powdered sugar. If you choose it, I recommend using organic powdered sugar sourced from sugar cane.

• Frosting: These are delicious without frosting! But you can also grind some panela sugar into a powder and use that. This will make a golden to brown frosting.

How To Make Zitronenherzen Or Lemon Hearts Cookies

Equipment

Medium sized bowl – for mixing your ingredients

Coffee, nut and spice grinder – You’ll need this to grind your sugar if you’re not using powdered sugar.

Hand mixer or egg beater – a wire whisk will also work, but will require a lot more effort.

Baking sheet – I am recommening a Greenpan baking sheet here. After a long search to find a perfect baking sheet, I feel that this is the best I have found. It is non-stick and holds up to metal utensils. Stainless steel sheets often warp, and aluminum is toxic when it leaches into foods. And while I love cast iron, it is pretty heavy. You could use any baking sheet with a silicone mat and parchment paper. I could fit all my cookies on one half sheet pan.

Rolling pin – Use any rolling pin to roll out your dough. I have a handled one, but I have this one on my wishlist :). If you don’t have one, try a smooth round bottle. You can also try a glass bottle.

Parchment paper – I used two sheets of parchment for rolling the dough. It’s so much easier that way, and then I like to line the baking sheet with parchment too. This could be reused several times, just wipe the crumbs off. You could also use a silicone baking mat.

Heart shaped cookie cutter – or make stars or other shapes, whatever you have will work, you could even use a small champagne glass or something to cut out round shapes.

Ingredients

I try my best to use only organic ingredients if I don’t grow it myself, with rare exceptions. Unfortunately I live in a rural area and food desert where organic is apparently a foreign word, lol. So I’ve had to make exceptions a few times since the closest whole foods store is over an hour away. I do order a lot of my organic foods from Azure Standard, but they only deliver once a month in my area. If you live around Sedro-Wooley in Washington, there is a drop (Full Quiver) that gets weekly deliveries without shipping charges. I miss that drop, lol! Fortunately, this recipe has ingredients that I can get organic on Amazon. I’ll leave the links below. 

For The Cookies

Egg yolks – from organic pastured hens if possible. I always make these Zitronenherzen cookies when I make my Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars). Because this recipe uses 3 egg yolks and the cinnamon stars use 3 egg whites. So this works out perfect. But you can use the whites for any meringue recipe or angel food cake or other projects. And egg whites freeze well. Just collect each egg white in a ice cube tray compartment, put it in the freezer and when frozen, pop them out and store in a freezer container or bag. When you need them, thaw them in the fridge. They will whip up great.

Panela sugar (Sucanat), powdered – My original recipe calls for twice the amount of white powder sugar, but I really like these with less sugar, and the much healthier unrefined panela sugar. Just as with maple syrup, panela sugar is the reduced sap from the sugar cane plant, which gets dried and is normally sold in a solid block or granulated. It takes a while to dissolve, and for this recipe I powdered it in my coffee grinder. Coconut sugar makes a good substitute. For a more neutral flavor, you can also use partially refined evaporated cane juice crystals.

Vanilla extract – This is from Amazon, but I like to use the organic vanilla from Azure Standard. It’s very reasonably priced.

Lemon oil – or 1 tsp lemon zest. It’s convenient to keep on hand for baking when organic lemons are not easy to find.

Baking powder – My original recipe calls for a ‘messerspitze’ of baking powder. That means the tip of a knife. Not very precise, lol. But it can be translated to about 1/8 tsp.

Blanched almond flour (about 2 cups) – Use only 200g to start. Add a little more if the dough is too sticky. It will be slightly sticky, but should be firm enough to be easy to roll out and form. You’ll also want to have a little extra to sprinkle on your dough for easier, non-stick rolling.

Salt – I use Redmond’s Real Salt or Himalayan pink salt to benefit from the essential trace minerals it contains, many of which are not so easy to find in other foods.

For The Icing

If you’re trying to keep refined sugar out of your diet, you can leave these unfrosted, they are delicious plain too!

Powdered cane sugar – I like to use organic powder sugar for icing these. But I have also used my homemade powdered sugar from evaporated cane juice, which is pretty light colored, but my coffee grinder doesn’t powder super fine, and so it is a bit gritty. But it’s healthier. I do use only organic powdered sugar because normally conventional powder sugar is made with sprayed GMO cornstarch and sugar beets.

Lemon juice – fresh is best, but you can use bottled. I can’t get organic produce very often here and so when I do, I usually make organic fermented lemon paste for baking, freeze some zest and juice, and I also stock up on organic lemon juice in bottles.

Optional Food Coloring

By choosing natural organic vegetable powders for coloring your icing, you will avoid the toxins that are found in commercial food coloring. But these are actually health supporting superfoods. Add them as much as you like for decorating fun and know that you also improve your health by using them.

Beet root powder (red food coloring) – This is what I used today when making my Zitronenherzen. You’ll need very little to get a deep red. For a tablespoon of icing I added a pinch of beet powder. Beet powder is a powerhouse of nutrition, so if you get a bag, it will be so good to add to soups and smoothies to support your health.
Matcha or spinach powder (green food coloring)
Blue spirulina powder (blue food coloring)
Turmeric powder (yellow food coloring)

Instructions For Making Zitronenherzen, Lemon Hearts Cookies

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (wait till later if you choose to chill the dough)

Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

Place the eggs, sugar, and flavorings into a bowl and cream till light and fluffy.

Mix the baking powder with 200g of almond flour and add it all to the egg fluff.

Fold in the almonds with a spatula or spoon till it forms a slightly sticky dough. If it is really soft and very sticky, add more almond flour, one spoonful at a time. Don’t add too much. It should be a little sticky and soft, but firm enough to roll out. 

Place it into the refrigerator for half an hour to make handling easier if you like. I don’t find it necessary, but it’s an option, and you can also refrigerate the dough overnight and bake the next day. 

Roll the dough out to about ¼ in thick.

Cut hearts or other shapes out of the dough and place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 400℉ for about 10 minutes. 

Keep a close eye on them. They should remain pale golden and not turn brown.

Turn off the oven and take out the cookies. 

Wait a couple of minutes before using a turner to transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack and let them cool to room temperature.

Once they are cooled, prepare your icing. 

For the Icing

Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl

Add the lemon juice.

If the mix is too thick, add more lemon juice. If it’s too runny, add a little more powdered sugar. 

When you’re making colored icing, take away a spoonful and mix with a pinch of the vegetable powder of your choice. Mix well. 

To frost hearts I like to coat the bottom of a small spoon with the icing and push it into one round part of the heart, then into the other and pull the icing down to the point, or use a pastry brush. You could also pipe a thin line around the edge and fill it in for a fancy, finished look. 

If you want to use two colors on one heart, add the second color while the first is still wet and before it starts to crust over. Or you can wait till it’s all dry and then add the second color. I prefer the first method. I find that a toothpick works great for thin accent lines or dots. 

Leave the hearts to dry on a rack for a few hours or a whole day. Then carefully place them into a container (the icing will take a day to really get firm, so try not to touch it). Separate the layers with pieces of parchment to keep the icing from getting nicked. 

Seal and store at room temperature.

Storage

These Zitronenherzen cookies will store in a cookie tin or other sealed container for about a month. The flavor and texture will get even better after a few days, so they are best when you make them ahead. 

Ideas for Using Zitronenherzen Cookies

• Zitronenherzen are great on a mixed Christmas cookie platter.
• I like to serve them alongside a Creamy Lemon Quark Dessert for a special occasion.
• Make stars and decorate with red, white, and blue icing for Fourth of July cookies. 
• For Easter, cut out egg shapes and decorate with different colored icing. Try mixing spirulina and beet to make purple or turmeric and beet to make orange, etc. 

• Serve for Valentine’s Day or anniversaries with white and red icing. They are great served with Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce!
• Make them with white icing and sprinkle lightly with dried lemon zest for a bridal shower or even a wedding.
• Fill a small tin for a favorite teacher gift.
• Great for picnics, potlucks, and summer parties.
• Sell along with lemonade at your lemonade stand if that’s permitted.
• Gift to neighbors, friends, the mailman, daycare teacher, or coworkers in cookie tins along with Linzer cookies, Zimtsterne and Vanillekipferl.

Your Questions Answered

Enjoy These Delicious Zitronenherzen / Lemon Hearts! 

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do. I love that it’s made with almonds for a nutritious treat with healthy fats and protein. And I like making these with less sugar and use unrefined sugar to keep them healthier. And I think they are more delicious that way with a subtle sweetness, and greater depth of flavor, which complements the other ingredients rather than drown them out. I think you’ll love how versatile these are too! And I hope you get to make them and enjoy these delicious treats!

Have you made this recipe? I’d love to get your feedback and your ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating! I’d love to hear what your favorite Christmas cookies are, and please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments if you have any questions!

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Other Recipes You Might Like

Zimtsterne, (Cinnamon Stars) – Another German favorite for the Christmas cookie platter. Delicious, chewy, gluten-free nut meal cookies with a delicate, crunchy meringue frosting.

Vanillekipferl are delicate German almond and vanilla crescent cookies, a rich, buttery shortbread confections that’s a favorite to bake for Christmas cookie platters.

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Maple Walnut Cranberry Apple Cheesecake Bars – Fantastic flavor, wholesome ingredients, great holiday dessert.

Ginger Spice & Cranberry Healthy Apple Crisp – This most delicious, comfy and cozy fall and holiday dessert will warm you up on a chilly day and fill your home with the delightful scents of apples and spice and everything nice.

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Soft Sweet Potato And Peanut Butter Cookies are a delicious snack for anytime. Loaded with healthy ingredients that give these cookies a distinct and delicious flavor. Great for lunch boxes, trail food, tea time, snacks and more.

Einkorn Zucchini Bread – Make this delicious zucchini bread that is moist, healthy, and doesn’t skimp on flavor! Delicious!

Best Flaky Pie Crust – Check out my best flaky pie crust recipe. Perfect for all your harvest and holiday pies! Lost of options for customizing.

Lemon Cheesecake Mousse – A decadent, delicious, super healthy lemon dessert made with honey & lemon curd.

Lemon Tahini Cookies – Delicious, healthy spice cookies with lemon and honey. These spicy cookies are radical, especially if you love bold, complex flavors and healthy treats.

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Greenpan Baking sheet
Rolling pin
Rolling pin alternative
Parchment paper
Hand mixer
Coffee, nut and spice grinder
Heart shaped cookie cutter
Book: Dr. Oetker Backen Macht Freude
Panela sugar
Evaporated cane juice
Coconut sugar
Redmond’s real salt
Lemon oil
Beet root powder
Baking powder
Blanched almond flour
Organic powder sugar
Organic vanilla extract. You can get it in bulk from Azure Standard, along with so many other organic ingredients, give them a try!