Come Christmas and my heart starts pounding and the brain starts rushing towards baking more and more at home. Every year I feel this rush to bake so many of recipes, which I would collect over the months, before the year ends. Just because one more year is nearing it’s end, the baker-blogger instinct in me just triggers on. And I find flour and sugar smeared all over me, literally! But I love it. Baking has always been relaxing to me, however cliche it may sound. I’d never skimp on baking a cake or a big batch of cookies for my loved ones. The happiness of seeing a wide smile on my loved one’s face that comes from eating that piece of cake or nibbling onto those homemade cookies is just incomparable to anything. And what could be a better timing to spread and share the love than during festivals. I baked these vanilla almond crescent cookies last week, which are also famous in Austria as Vanillekipferl. These pillowy and melt-in-your-mouth cookies are traditionally made during Christmas. They are made with Almond or Walnut flour and are dusted with confectioner sugar. Although these cookies look very sugary, but actually these are very mildly sweet, which just make them even more surprisingly delicious. And these are totally addictive. You’d find quite hard to just stop at one. And by the time you’d realise, half the cookie jar will be finished. So just be wary of not being selfish and finish them all by yourself. They taste even more amazing, when shared with others.
- 150 gm almond meal
- 150 gm plain flour
- 150 gm unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
- 70 gm confectioner sugar
- 100 gm vanilla sugar
- 2 egg yolks, lightly whisked
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/2 tsp orange blossom water (optional)
- Sift the flour into a medium bowl. Add the butter and confectioner sugar, and rub with your fingertips to make fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the almond meal, egg yolks, vanilla essence and orange blossom water. Bring the dough using hands. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide the dough into 4 even portions and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.
- Preheat oven to 160°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Roll 1 portion of the dough into 2cm thick log and divide the log into 2cm long pieces. Use your hands to roll each piece to about 5cm long then bend slightly to make a crescent shape. Transfer to the prepared tray. Continue with the remaining dough portions.
- Bake in preheated oven, for 20 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp.
- Place the vanilla sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll the warm biscuits in the sugar and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- You can make your own vanilla sugar by placing one slit vanilla bean and confectioner sugar in an airtight container for a week, shaking the jar a couple of times in between.