Vienna Crescents Recipes

VIENNESE CRESCENT HOLIDAY COOKIES

Steps:

• 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.
• 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 and store in an airtight container at room temperature. Just before serving, coat with more vanilla flavored sugar.

VIENNESE CRESCENTS

Steps:

• Chop vanilla bean. Pound it in a mortar or pulverize it in an electric blender with about one tablespoon of the confectioner's sugar. Mix with the remaining confectioners' sugar. Cover and let stand, preferably overnight. Reserve while cookies are baked.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cut walnuts with a sharp knife into very small pieces. Pound the pieces to a paste, using mortar and pestle.
• With a wooden spoon or the fingers, mix walnuts, butter, granulated sugar and flour to a smooth dough. Shape dough, about a teaspoon at a time, into small crescents about one and a half inches in diameter.
• Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet until lightly browned, or 15 to 18 minutes. Cool one minute. While still warm, roll cookies in prepared vanilla sugar.

VIENNESE ALMOND CRESCENTS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large cookie sheets with cooking parchment paper.
• In small bowl, mix flour, almond meal and salt, stirring well with wire whisk. In large bowl, beat butter and granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating until blended. Refrigerate 10 minutes.
• Shape dough into 40 (2-inch) logs; bend logs to form crescent shape. Place crescents 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake 12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks; sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar.

VIENNA CRESCENTS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees Farenheit.
• Grind the nuts (A mouli grater works quickly and easily).
• Work butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy.
• Add flour, salt, vanilla and nuts; mix until well blended.
• Using your hands, take ball of dough the size of a medium orange, and work it on the counter using both hands, rolling it until it looks like a rope, almost ½ inch thick. I have never chilled the dough, but you might chill it if you find it easier for handling it.
• Cut into three-inch lengths.
• Place on ungreased cookie sheet, either on foil or parchment paper, curving them into "C" shapes about one inch apart, and bake 18 to 20 minutes.
• Cool crescents until cool enough to handle, and roll in confectioner's sugar, pressing gently so as not to break them, until completely covered.
• Makes about 6 dozen cookies.
• TOASTING HAZELNUTS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place hazelnuts in single layer on cookie sheet and toast until the skins begin to split, about 10 minutes. Rub the warm nuts vigorously with a clean kitchen towel to remove the skins. Return nuts to the pan and toast until fragrant and golden brown, about 2 - 3 minutes more. (Remember to turn oven down for the cookies.).

VIENNESE CRESCENTS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Cream butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar, flour, nuts, and vanilla.
• Mix thoroughly. With your fingers, shape into crescents about 2 inches long, 1/4 inch wide and thick.
• Roll each cookie in confectioners' sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes, until just slightly golden.
• Place on a wire rack to cool and roll in more confectioners' sugar before serving.

VIENNESE CRESCENT COOKIES

Steps:

• In an airtight container, combine the confectioners' sugar and vanilla bean and let stand, covered, for at least 24 hours. Sift before using. (The vanilla sugar will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to several months.)
• In a food processor or high-powered blender, pulse together the flour, 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, salt, and hazelnuts until the nuts are finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add the butter and pulse just until a dough forms. If the dough is crumbly, you may need to pulse it a little longer until it forms a dough. Turn the dough onto your work surface and gently form it into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap or wax paper and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven.
• Roll level tablespoons of dough (about 18 grams) into balls. Then roll each ball on a smooth surface into a 3-inch log with slightly tapered ends. Bend each log to form crescents and arrange them about 1 inch apart on baking sheets.
• Bake the cookies until the edges are pale golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 2 minutes.
• Sift enough vanilla confectioners' sugar onto a rimmed baking sheet to cover the bottom.
• Carefully transfer the slightly cooled baked crescent cookies to the sugared baking sheet and sprinkle with enough sugar to coat completely. Move the crescents to wire racks to cool completely. (The cookies keep, layered between sheets of wax or parchment paper, in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.)

VANILLEKIPFERL (AUSTRIAN VANILLA CRESCENT COOKIES)

Steps:

• Place the butter and flour in to the bowl of your food processor. Pulse to combine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Place the mixture in a large bowl.
• Add the ground almonds, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, and egg yolks to the mixture. Knead the dough with your hands in the bowl until it comes together, 5 min.
• Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, shape each into a ball. Place the balls in a sealed plastic bag or covered bowl in the refrigerator for at least half an hour, up to 2 days, to develop flavor.
• Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
• Remove one ball of dough from the refrigerator. Roll it into a rope, 12 inches long. Cut the rope into 12 even pieces. Roll each piece into a 3-4 inch rope and shape it into a crescent. Place the shaped crescents onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a non-stick baking mat, ½ inch apart. Repeat with the remaining dough, removing one ball of dough from the refrigerator at a time, until you have filled one tray.
• Bake the cookies, one tray at a time, for 11-12 min, until the tips of the crescents just start to turn a light golden brown.
• Remove the pan from the oven. (And place your second, cool tray with shaped cookies in the oven to bake, if necessary.)
• Let the baked cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes while you prepare your sugar mixture. Mix ½ c powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar together in a shallow bowl.
• Take the warm cookies from the baking sheet and carefully coat them in the sugar mixture. Place the coated cookies on a wire rack to finish cooling.
• Repeat as needed with the remaining cookies.
• Leave the cookies out overnight to harden, and then transfer them to an air tight container to store for up to 1 week.

VIENNESE CRESCENTS

Steps:

• Cream the butter and add the sugar and vanilla and beat to fluffy. Add the flour and nuts and mix in. Chill the dough for at least one hour. The more it's chilled the less it spreads during baking.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Shape the dough into tiny crescents using 1 teaspoon of dough for each cookie. Place them on an ungreased sheet pan in rows, leaving 1 inch in between for spreading and bake until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.
• Let cool 5 minutes. Dredge them in confectioners' sugar.

PATRICIA'S VIENNESE CRESCENTS

Steps:

• Using a small, sharp knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into a small bowl. Discard the pod. Add 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar and use a mortar or the back of a spoon to pound and mix them together. Add the remaining confectioners' sugar and stir to combine. Cover and let stand at least 1 hour. DO AHEAD: Vanilla sugar can be made ahead and stored, in an airtight container at room temperature, indefinitely.
• Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and a second rack in the lower third then preheat to 350°F.
• Using a food processor, grind the walnuts into a chunky paste then transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed, scraping the bowl occasionally, until completely incorporated, about 2 minutes. Add the flour in 3 batches and stir until a smooth dough forms, about 2 minutes.
• On a lightly floured surface, shape heaping tablespoons of dough into 3- to 4-inch-long ropes, tapering the ends. Curve each rope into a crescent shape. Transfer to a baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake, switching the cookies between the upper and lower racks about halfway through baking, until light golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Let the cookies cool 2 to 3 minutes then carefully roll them in vanilla sugar and place on racks to cool completely. Continue baking cookies on cooled baking sheets. DO AHEAD: The cookies can be baked ahead and stored, in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 3 days.