HAZELNUT CRESCENTS (Vanilkove rohlicky)
These buttery melting shortbread cookies made with hazelnuts and dusted with vanilla sugar are a crowd pleaser during Christmas or any other holidays.
Servings: 30 crescents
Calories: 118kcal
Equipment
- large baking sheet
Ingredients
Crescent cookies
- 2 & ⅛ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
- ⅞ cup (200 g) unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (80 g) hazelnuts ground
Coating
- 1 cup (120 g) icing sugar
- 2 pkg (18 g) vanilla sugar
Instructions
- Cut the softened butter into cubes 1 inch large. In a medium bowl of a standing mixer, mix together flour, sugar and finely ground hazelnuts. Add in the butter and beat with the mixer on low speed until the dough comes together in a ball.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead just to form a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic foil & let cool in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (2 hours would be ideal).
- Preheat oven to 177C / 350 F. Rack in the middle position & prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut it into three equal pieces. Sprinkle a bit of a flour over the working surface and start kneading gently the first piece of the dough until it's lightly soft.
- Roll the first dough into a small cylinder, approximately 1 inch in diameter, and cut it into 3/4- inch pieces. Take a first piece of the dough and roll gently in between the palms of your hands to form a rope, about 3-inches long. Curve it gently to create the shape of a crescent.
- Place the crescent onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, approximately 1/4-inch apart. Bake in preheated oven, for 10–12 minutes.
Coating
- In a medium bowl, combine icing sugar and vanilla sugar with a whisk. Gently coat the crescents in the mixture of sugars while still warm. Be careful not to touch crescents when still hot, let them slightly cool down before coating.
Video
Notes
Chilling the dough - It is important to chill the dough at least 1 hour before working and baking with. Otherwise, like any other cookie dough needs to chill, because the fat (butter) would melt too quickly while baking and our cookies would come out flat.
Standing mixer - I recommend using standing mixer for easier manipulation with the dough.
Nuts - You can use almonds, walnuts or pecans to make these crescents.
Vanilla sugar - In Czech we call these cookies "Vanilla crescents" because of its flavours from the vanilla sugar. If you can't find vanilla sugar in your European store, you can use 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract in the dough to add vanilla flavour.
Measurements - I recommend measuring all ingredients with a digital kitchen scale. Cups measuring might differ from manufacturer of cups. Please refer to 1 cup as 250 ml US cup. The precision of measuring ingredients on a digital scale will give the best results.