Viennese Vanilla Crescents Recipes

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.

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.

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.

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.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Beat the butter on medium speed of mixer until lightened in color and creamy.
• Sift 3/4 cup powdered sugar over the butter and beat until well combined.
• Stir in vanilla and nuts.
• Graduallly sift flour over the top while stirring.
• Knead until well blended.
• Pull off generous 1-tablespoon pieces of doug, roll with your hands into a short rope and shape into crescents.
• NOTE: If the dough is soft and difficult to handle, refrigerate until slightly firm.
• Space 1 1/4 inches apart on greased cookie sheets.
• Bake 1 sheet at a time until the crescents are tinged with brown and slightly darker at the edges, 13 to 16 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking for even browning.
• Remove the sheet to a cooling rack and let stand until the cookies firm slightly.
• Transfer the cookies to racks and cool completely. Sift 2/3 cup of powdered sugar over cookies (entire batch) until evenly coated.