Viennese Crescents
Updated Dec. 6, 2022
- Total Time
- 35 minutes, plus overnight standing
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¼vanilla bean
- 1cup sifted confectioner's sugar
- 1cup walnut meats
- 1cup butter, at room temperature
- ¾cup granulated sugar
- 2½cups sifted all-purpose flour
Nutritional analysis per serving (72 servings)
54 calories; 3 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 2 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
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.
- Step 2
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Step 3
Cut walnuts with a sharp knife into very small pieces. Pound the pieces to a paste, using mortar and pestle.
- Step 4
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.
- Step 5
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.
- Do not be tempted to cut the vanilla bean in a food processor; it doesn't work. But the machine works well with the walnuts.
Private Notes
Comments
This recipe doesn't mention allowing the dough to rest. Perhaps it was such common knowledge when originally written it wasn't mentioned. Nevertheless you'll have less problems with a crumbly texture by allowing the flour's gluten to develop in the refrigerator. I opted for a full day's resting since I used 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1-1/2 cups AP flour but if using the called for AP flour an hour's resting should be enough.
I make these every year and love them. I use a food processor to make the dough - chop the nuts and sugar, add the butter, then the flour. I seal the dough in a container and refrigerate until I'm ready to bake. I make the vanilla sugar by splitting a vanilla bean and putting it in a jar with powdered sugar about 10 days ahead of baking the cookies. Try pecans instead of walnuts!
This may indeed be the greatest cookie ever. I make them every year, but wonder if folks have frozen them before sugaring? Seems like the sugar wouldn't adhere as well after, so I've never tried it. But I'd love to stand corrected!
My Mother used to make these all the time when I was a child, like 60 years ago. I'm finally making them again after all these decades. Although they were a family favorite as-is, I can't help wondering if these would be improved with a touch of salt and perhaps toasting the walnuts before making a paste out of them. I'll probably end up trying making them that way as well, side-by-side, and seeing if it makes a noticeable difference.
I really like this style of cookie but these were too sweet for me, Id prefer a mix with less sugar in the dough. And even though I let the dough hydrate before baking, I thought they were difficult to handle. I wouldn't make this recipe again
I freeze these all the time. Also, after they are formed I put them in the refrigerator for an hour, or if it’s cold outside on our back porch