Almond Crescent Cookies

These almond crescent cookies are a buttery, melt-in-your mouth shortbread-esque cookie with a delicious almond flavor. Dusted with powdered sugar, they're perfect for your Christmas cookie tray or with morning coffee all year round.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Austrian

Keyword Almond Crescent Cookies, Viennese Crescent Cookies

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 14

Total Time 1

Servings cookies

Calories 131kcal

Author Fiona Dowling

Equipment

Cookie Sheets

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (226 grams) softened
⅔ cup superfine sugar (133 grams) granulated works too
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon salt
2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (281 grams) you may need 1-2 extra tablespoons
1 cup almond flour (95 grams) almond meal works too
¼ cup powdered sugar (27 grams) for dusting

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) or 325F (170C) on a convection oven.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until combined.
Mix in the vanilla, almond extract and salt.
Add in 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup almond flour. Start with the mixer on a low speed and gradually increase until you no longer see pieces of flour. It should be a bit difficult to incorporate all of the dry ingredients.
Turn off the mixer. Take a section of dough and squeeze it in your hand. If the dough sticks together, it is finished. If it just crumbles and doesn't stick together, mix in 1-2 tablespoons of milk (do this slowly) until it sticks together. If when you squeeze the dough you end up with sticky dough attached to your hands, mix in a little more flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
Pinch of sections of dough with about 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of dough each. Roll into a ball and then pinch into a crescent shape.
Place crescents about 1.5 inches (3 cm) apart on the lined baking sheets.
Bake 1 sheet at a time in the preheated oven for about 12-14 minutes or until the tops no longer look doughy. Do not bake these cookies until they are golden brown.
Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for about 5-10 minutes. Then dust with powdered sugar by sprinkling 1-2 tablespoons at a time through a metal sifter.

Notes

Butter: Because this is a shortbread-type cookie and so much of the flavor comes from the butter, do not substitute with margarine or shortening. If using salted butter, simply remove the salt from the recipe.
Almond Extract: Almond extract can be found in the baking aisle typically near the vanilla extract. It can be left out of this recipe, however the almond flavor won't be quite as pronounced.
Almond Flour vs Almond Meal: I have used both almond flour and almond meal in these cookies. If making your own almond meal, add a few tablespoons of flour (from the 2 ¼ cup that the recipe calls for) in your food processor before processing the almonds. Otherwise, you can end up with almond butter.
Storage: Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Nutrition: Details provided are an estimate only and based on 1 cookie, assuming the recipe yields 30 uniform cookies.

Nutrition