I can not imagine Christmas without this easy, nutty, melt-in-your-mouth, and extremely delicious vanilla crescent cookies.
Altough Vanilla Crescent Cookies or originally Vanillekipferl are Austrian cookies, they are made during Christmas time throughout Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland etc. And are staple Christmas cookie at our house too. As I always say simple recipes are always the best one, and that saying goes with this cookies too – only few ingredients and you will get delicious, melt-in-your-mouth cookies.
What you will need: ground walnuts (or almonds), flour, egg white, sugar, butter or margarine, vanilla sugar, few tablespoons of milk, and lemon juice (that’s optional). They are two types of the recipe, with and without egg. I found them a bit fragile when made without an egg, and as I’m a traditional woman, I stick to my grandma’s recipe.
Vanilla Crescent Cookies are my dad’s favorite Christmas treat. Make him a batch of these and he is the happiest man on Earth – what a simple person my father is ?.
How to make vanilla sugar!!!
›200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar ›1 vanilla bean
Cut the vanilla bean in few pieces and scrape the seeds. Place vanilla bean scraps and seeds in a container of white granulated sugar. Seal shut and let it sit a few weeks, shaking occasionally. Discard the vanilla beans – your vanilla sugar is ready to use!
Happy baking 🙂
Mihaela
Vanilla Crescent Cookies
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 350 grams all-purpose flour (3 cups-3 Tbsp, 12.3 oz)
- 1 egg white lightly beaten, room temperature
- 100 grams ground walnuts (1 cup, 3.52 oz)(or ground almonds)
- 80 grams granulated sugar (1/3 cup+1 Tbsp, 2.8 oz)
- 200 grams butter or margarine (3/4 cup+2 Tbsp, 7.05 oz) room temperature
- 3 Tablespoons milk
- optional: 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
For dusting:
- 120 grams powdered sugar (1 cup)
- 2 Tablespoons vanilla sugar
Instructions
- For the dough place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and knead until thoroughly combined.
- The dough will be fairly dry and flaky. Shape the dough into a log and wrap with plastic wrap.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour or up to 2 days.
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut off small pieces of the dough (15 grams max) and shape them into crescents.
- Place the crescents onto a baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of the crescents or until the edges begin to turn light golden.
- Combine the powdered sugar and vanilla sugar.
- Let the cookies sit for a few minutes and then use a sifter to dust them with the vanilla-powdered sugar while they're still hot. Let the cookies cool completely and then give them a second dusting.
- Stored in an airtight container in a cool place, these cookies will keep for several weeks.
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