Maple Walnut Crescent Cookies
Heather Bowes
A variation of the traditional Vanillekipferl, a European crescent shaped Christmas cookie made with nuts and heavily dusted with vanilla sugar.
Ingredients
- Cookie dough
- 1 cup butter unsalted and at room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup confectioners sugar
- 1 tablespoon maple sugar
- 1 cup finely ground walnuts
- 1 pinch of salt
- Sugar mixture for dusting
- ⅓ cup confectioners sugar
- ⅓ cup maple sugar
Directions
- Cut the butter into cubes and combine in a large mixing bowl with the flour, salt, and sugars.
- Mix until combined and then add the ground walnuts. The dough will be a crumbly consistency. Should not take more than 2 minutes.
- With your hands form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic.
- Chill the dough for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Remove dough from the refrigerator and cut in half, return one half wrapped in plastic to the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Make tablespoon sized balls of the dough and shape into crescents. Try not to warm the dough too much with your hands. Flour a board to roll the cookies if needed.
- Place the shaped cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet about one inch apart.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookie begins to gently turn golden, they shouldn’t brown.
- Remove from the oven and sift sugar mixture over top of the cookies. Once the cookies are cool roll them gently in the sugar mixture for another coating.
- Repeat with remaining dough.
- Enjoy!