Viennese Crescent Cookies
Delicate little butter cookies with finely ground hazelnuts are the Viennese version of a Holiday butter cookie. In the shape of a crescent they are easy to make and a dip in the chocolate is optional, though the vanilla spiced powdered sugar is not!
Viennese Crescent Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup hazelnuts, finely ground (or almonds, if preferred)
½ cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup semi-sweet or 60% chocolate, chips or cut into small pieces
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
-In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, butter, nuts, 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, salt, and vanilla. Hand mix until thoroughly blended. Shape dough into a ball. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
-Meanwhile, place sugar in a bowl or small container. With sharp chef's knife, split vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape out seeds, and mix them into the sugar. Cut pod into 2 inch pieces and mix into sugar.
-Remove dough from refrigerator and form into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball into a small roll, 3 inches long. Place rolls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet, and bend each one to make a crescent shape, pinching the ends to a point.
-Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until set but not brown.
-Let stand 1 minute, then remove from cookie sheets. Place hot cookies on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Sprinkle with prepared sugar mixture. Turn gently to coat on both sides. Cool completely.
-Meanwhile, prepare the ganache for dipping: Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate to the cream without stirring. Allow to sit for 15 minutes then whisk the chocolate into the cream until it is very smooth and the chocolate completely melted. Let ganache sit for about 15 minutes to thicken a bit then dip half of each cookie into the ganache and lay cookies on a rack or parchment paper to allow the chocolate to set.
-Once chocolate is set, dip the end without the chocolate into the powdered sugar mixture one more time. Sprinkle cookies with gold dusting sugar, if desired. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
-Makes 4 dozen small cookies
Mix dough, shape into a ball and wrap in plastic to chill, for easier handling.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls, roll into 3” long pieces and shape into screscents.
Dip each baked crescent into vanilla powdered sugar and then halfway into chocolate ganache.
Talk about the “Golden Crescent” - with a pinch of gold dusting sugar, your Viennese cookies will sparkle!
PERSNICKETY PANHANDLER:
*You can use either ground hazelnuts or almonds in this recipe, but make sure they are finely ground. Some recipes even use almond flour in place of the ground almonds. So it is up to you, but the hazelnuts are more traditional.
*You can find gold dusting sugar on Amazon or other cooking product sites. So fun to use on cakes and other desserts, I use it when I just want to add a sparkle!
*Be careful not to over bake the cookies so they are soft when you bite into them. Bake just until set, about 10 minutes, with no browning on them.
