German Vanilla Crescent Cookies | Vanillekipferl
These German vanilla crescent cookies called Vanillekipferl are one of my all-time favorite cookies! The tender dough is made with ground almonds and lots of butter. And the sweet aroma and enticing flavor of vanilla is achieved with vanilla extract, so you don't need to buy expensive whole vanilla beans!
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (2 sticks)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or substitute one scraped vanilla bean pod)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup almond flour (or finely ground almonds or hazelnuts)
- ½ cup powdered sugar (for dusting)
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand whisk to beat the softened butter on high speed until it’s light and soft, after about 1 minute.
- Add the granulated sugar and beat on low speed until it’s fluffy and pale yellow, after about 1 minute.
- Add the vanilla extract, salt, all purpose flour, and almond flour and mix on low speed until it forms a crumbly dough.
- Separate the dough in half onto two separate sheets of plastic cling wrap. Use your hands to form the dough into logs, each about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap each dough log individually in the plastic cling wrap. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Working in two batches to bake the cookies, take one dough log out of the fridge, and unwrap it from the plastic wrap. Use a sharp kitchen knife to slice the log into ½ inch circular pieces.
- Gently squish each circle of dough and bend the ends towards each other to form a crescent. Place each crescent of dough spaced out on the prepared baking sheet 1 inch apart.
- Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, until the bottoms and edges turn golden.
- While the first batch of cookies bakes, shape the other log of chilled dough. Once the first batch of cookies come out of the oven, let them cool for one minute, then sift powdered sugar on top. Bake the second batch of cookies and dust them with powdered sugar too once they come out of the oven.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature. Enjoy!!
Notes
- The dough should remain cold, so the butter doesn’t get a chance to warm and soften before the cookies hit the oven. Therefore, it’s easiest to work in batches.
- The dough is fragile and will crack as you shape the crescents. Due to the high butter amount, all you have to do is gently squish the dough back together to fix any cracks.
- Try to shape the cookies as evenly shaped as possible, so they all bake at the same time.
- Dust the cookies with powdered sugar while they’re still warm from the oven, to get the powdered sugar to stick.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 cookieCalories: 159kcalCarbohydrates: 16gProtein: 2gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.3gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 26mgPotassium: 14mgFiber: 1gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 237IUCalcium: 14mgIron: 1mg
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