As another beloved German christmas cookie, Vanillekipferl are extremely easy to make and always hugely popular. Since this recipe calls for egg yolks and the Zimtstern recipe calls for egg whites, I tend to make both at the same time.
Ingredients:
Dough:
- 1 3/4 cups (250g) all purpose flour
- 3/4 cups (80g) powdered sugar
- 1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 cup (250g) unsalted butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 100g ground (peeled) almonds
Coating:
- 1/8 cup caster sugar
- 1 pack vanilla sugar
Mix flour, sifted powdered sugar, soft butter, egg yolks and almonds with a dough hook (or knead by hand). Scrape the inside of a vanilla bean and add it to the dough. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
When you remove the dough from the fridge, split it in half and put one half back into the fridge. Make sure that the dough does not get too warm. If the dough start to stick to your hands, that means that either your hands are too warm or the dough itself is getting too warm. Either put the dough back into the fridge for a bit or run your hands under cold water.
Pre-heat the oven to 390°F. Form long rolls of dough and cut them into small sections of approximately 5 cm (2 inches). Bend the dough and slightly round the ends. Make sure that the ends are not too pointy as they will burn otherwise. Your crescents should now look something like this:
Remember to leave plenty of space between the moons as they tend to expand in the oven. Bake for approximately 15 minutes at 390°F or until the crescents start to turn slightly brown. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for approximately 5-10 minutes.
Mix caster sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl for the coating. Take individual crescents and "bathe" them in the sugar mix. Make sure to do this while the cookies are still slightly warm to get the sugar to stick. Don't worry if one or two of your cookies break while doing so, as the cookies are naturally crumbly. Aaaand we're done! Enjoy and happy holidays! :)
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