Vanilla Crescents “Vanillekipferln”

Dough

1. Cut butter into ½ inch cubes, then set aside in the freezer to keep cold
2. Meanwhile prepare the rest of the ingredients
3. Weigh the flour and set aside in the freezer or fridge as well. The colder the ingredients, the better
4. Grind walnuts or almonds
   1. GB:  Magic Bullet is perfect to do this task. Alternatively, use almond meal, which is also commonly used for baking Vanillekipferl in Austria. I discovered that Harmon’s or Albertson’s sell this almond meal. However, very expensive. I chose the less expensive – but more tedious and time consuming route.  I blanched the almonds to take the skin off and soften the almonds before grinding the almonds in the M.B.  That worked beautifully
5. Put flour and butter in a food processor, pulse a couple of times until mixture resembles coarse crumbs
6. In a mixing bowl, mix egg yolks together with vanilla and milk, just until combined
7. Add butter crumbs, almonds, sugar and salt to the egg-mixture and stir until the ingredients come together to a dough
8. In the bowl, knead the dough until well combined
9. Cut the dough in quarters, keep one and set the rest of the dough aside in the fridge.  Cover the bowl so the dough won’t get dry
10. Divide the dough into egg-sized pieces and roll out each of them with your hand into strands with about ½ inch diameter
11. Cut the strands in 2 inch long pieces.  Roll out every piece about 3 – 3 ½  inch long and shape into a crescent.  Make the ends slightly thinner, but not too thin as they will brown first.
12. Arrange the shaped crescents on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (makes the handling a lot easier), at least ½ inch apart.
13. Bake the cookies in the center rack at 350º for 13–15 minutes or until lightly colored

Sugar Coating

1. Mix sifted powdered sugar and vanilla sugar (granulated) until well combined. If using homemade vanilla sugar, mix most of it with the sifted powdered sugar, keeping a tiny amount aside in case you need more powdered sugar for the coating
2. Put the coating on a plate and prepare an empty plate for the finished Vanillekipferl.
3. Take out the baking sheet for the oven, removing the cookies immediately, so they don’t continue baking.  If you are using parchment paper, you can carefully remove the cookies along with the parchment paper. If not, remove them with a spatula and set them aside. Be careful, they break easily when they are hot.
4. Let them cool for 1 minute, then put several crescents in the prepared sugar-vanilla mixture, roll them around until cover in sugar and transfer to a plate. Be careful not to break them (because then you have to eat them immediately) The sugar will stick best, when the cookies are still warm at the moment of rolling them. Also don’t touch them for tool long on the same spot as this will yield in Vanillekipferl with fingerprints. If you did so, you can always sprinkle them with additional sugar when finished or before serving.
   1. GB: I got a kick out of this, because it shows the perfect translation of a very “precise Austrian baker and his/her translation
5. When completely cool, store crescents in an airtight container or cookie box

Notes

The coating for Vanillekipferl consists of powdered sugar mix with vanilla sugar. In Europe most people use vanilla sugar (vanilla flavored granulated sugar) instead of vanilla extract which you can buy in every store. In the USA it’s hard to find in supermarkets or it is super expensive.)