Vanilla Crescents

Also known as Vanillekipferl in Austria and Chiffeletti in Italy, these delicate, sandy cookies are perfect for festive  events and would make a delicious gift. There are several recipes on the internet, all very similar, but my favourite one comes from an Italian cooking forum called Coquinaria. For once, I didn’t change anything at all – this recipe is absolutely perfect as it is!

Vanilla crescents improve with time, so I recommend baking them at least a day in advance. One  word of advice: these cookies are addictive, so if you don’t have strong willpower do as I did and give away most of them to your  friends and neighbours! They’ll appreciate, and your waistline won’t expand too much

Tips & Notes

• The dough needs to be divided into 64 pieces. To do this, I first divide it in half, then divide each half in half, and so on, until I end up with 64 pieces of more or less the same size.
• If your hands are warm or the kitchen is too warm, work on a few pieces of dough at a time, and keep the rest in the fridge.
• You’ll need to bake in several times. You can prepare all the crescents, place them in several baking trays and keep the baking trays in the fridge until it’s time to bake. If, however, you only have one baking tray, divide the dough in 64 pieces, shape only as many pieces as you can comfortably fit in the tray, then leave the rest of the dough in the fridge. When you’ve baked one batch and you’ve transferred the crescents on a wire rack to cool, cool the baking tray in some cold water before using it again for the second batch.
• Make sure that your oven is preheated to the right temperature; if your oven is not warm enough, the crescents may flatten and loose their shape (this applies to most cookies & cakes).
• While most recipes use ground almonds, lots of people on the Italian forum used other nuts  (walnuts, pistachio nuts, hazelnuts) and other flavouring other than vanilla (orange flower water, rose water), and I guess it might be worth experimenting with different combinations. Pistachio nuts and rose water, or hazelnuts and orange flower water, should work particularly well together.

Vanilla crescents

(makes 64 crescents)

250 gr butter, unsalted, at room temperature (8.8 ounces)

125 gr vanilla sugar (4.4 ounces)

3 egg yolks from medium eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean

Pinch of salt

300 gr plain  (all purpose) flour (10.6 ounces)

125 gr almonds, peeled and ground (4.4 ounces)

Icing sugar for dusting

• Remove the skin from the almonds: put almonds in a small pan, pour boiling water over them and and set aside for 3-4 minutes. Drain the water, then take each almond between thumb and forefinger and squeeze gently – the skin will easily slip off the almonds. Spread the almonds on a shallow baking tray, in a single layer, and let them dry in the oven at 80° (175° F) for about 10 minutes.
• Put the dry almonds in a blender with flour and salt, and pulse until reduced to a fine powder. Don’t blend continuously, or the almonds will start to produce oil and you’ll end up with an oily mass.
• In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together, using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon.
• Add egg yolk and vanilla extract, and mix until well combined.
• Using a spatula or a wooden spoon blend in the mix of flour, salt and ground almonds until combined into a soft dough. Don’t over-beat, it makes the cookies hard.
• Pour the dough over a piece of cling film, wrap it well and chill for a minimum of 2 hours, up to 2 days. I usually prefer making the dough a day ahead, so that it rests overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 160° C (320° F). Divide the dough into 64 pieces. Shape each piece into a roll with tapered ends and gently bend to form a crescent.
• Place each crescent over a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for about 15 minutes – the crescents should remain pale. Take out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes, then transfer on a rack to cool completely. The crescents are very tender when warm and break easily, so handle them with care.
• Once completely cooled, dust the crescents with icing sugar.
• Store in a tin box or airtight container, covering each layer with parchment paper/waxed paper.  Vanilla crescents are best eaten at least a day after they’d been baked; they keep for several days, and actually improve with time.

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Tagged as: baking, biscuits, cookies