Vanilla Crescents - Vanillekipferl
Sep. 7th, 2010 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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I promised to copy down the recipe from my great-grandmother's recipe collection (which is written in the old German script, so you better appreciate!), and I figured that I might as well go all the way.
Therefore:
Vanilla Crescents - Vanillekipferl

(You can click on the images to see a giant version)
Ingredients:
Supplies:
You should have everything you need, but if you're anal (like me) in your preparations, you'll need:
1 oven
1 fork
1 knife
3 bowls
2 baking sheets
baking paper
saran wrap
Put all the flour on a clean surface and form a corrie.

Put the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the egg yolks (which you had already separated from the egg whites) into the depression and work into a smooth paste. I recommend using a fork in the beginning.

Now add the ground almonds and the butter (should be at room temperature, and cut into smaller bits), and knead until it's an even dough (or you've developed a healthy hatred of flour, doughs, and baking, whichever comes first). Then knead it some more. I'd recommend having cold hands for this, but it's not like you can influence that - I have hands like heating pads, no lie.
It should look roughly like this:

Put the ball of dough on a generously sized piece of saran wrap, which you've put in a convenient location nearby. Wrap it, and put the dough in a cool place (ideally less than 18° C) for half an hour. Or the entire night, depends on how much time and enthusiasm you have left over for the last part.
The right one is our vanilla crescent dough, the one to the left is for shortbread.

Get the dough, and cut it into small pieces - they should be approximately 1 cm x 1 cm x 3 cm. If you have some experience or are good at estimating, just start cutting. Otherwise, you might want to form a roll out of the dough and cut off even slices, which you can then quarter.

Form crescents (or pretzels or whatever) and put them on the baking sheet, which you've outfitted with baking paper. Remember to leave some room. They don't have to be too even, but don't make the points to pointy, or they might turn brown too quickly.

For reference, the crescents and my Mum's stumpy little finger: [ ;) ]

Put the baking sheet into the pre-heated oven (180° C) at medium height for 12-15 minutes. This is where the size of the crescents and your shaping skills come into play. Be sure to check on them after 10 minutes are over, you never know.
They should look like this when they're ready:

Get them out of the oven (and put the second sheet in, this much dough should be enough for 2 1/2 sheets of cookies), let them cool down for 2-3 minutes (they should still be as hot as possible though!), and then roll them in the vanilla-flavoured sugar, like so:

Et voilà:

Vanilla crescents! :D
Happy munching. (As an aside, these cookies taste best a couple of days after making them rather than fresh out of the oven.)
Therefore:
Vanilla Crescents - Vanillekipferl
(You can click on the images to see a giant version)
Ingredients:
300 g flour
125 g sugar (extra fine)
1 tsp vanilla sugar (a generous tsp)
3 egg yolks
125 g ground almonds
250 g butter
extra sugar and vanilla sugar (or a fresh vanilla pod)
125 g sugar (extra fine)
1 tsp vanilla sugar (a generous tsp)
3 egg yolks
125 g ground almonds
250 g butter
extra sugar and vanilla sugar (or a fresh vanilla pod)
Supplies:
You should have everything you need, but if you're anal (like me) in your preparations, you'll need:
1 oven
1 fork
1 knife
3 bowls
2 baking sheets
baking paper
saran wrap
Put all the flour on a clean surface and form a corrie.
Put the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the egg yolks (which you had already separated from the egg whites) into the depression and work into a smooth paste. I recommend using a fork in the beginning.
Now add the ground almonds and the butter (should be at room temperature, and cut into smaller bits), and knead until it's an even dough (or you've developed a healthy hatred of flour, doughs, and baking, whichever comes first). Then knead it some more. I'd recommend having cold hands for this, but it's not like you can influence that - I have hands like heating pads, no lie.
It should look roughly like this:
Put the ball of dough on a generously sized piece of saran wrap, which you've put in a convenient location nearby. Wrap it, and put the dough in a cool place (ideally less than 18° C) for half an hour. Or the entire night, depends on how much time and enthusiasm you have left over for the last part.
The right one is our vanilla crescent dough, the one to the left is for shortbread.
Get the dough, and cut it into small pieces - they should be approximately 1 cm x 1 cm x 3 cm. If you have some experience or are good at estimating, just start cutting. Otherwise, you might want to form a roll out of the dough and cut off even slices, which you can then quarter.
Form crescents (or pretzels or whatever) and put them on the baking sheet, which you've outfitted with baking paper. Remember to leave some room. They don't have to be too even, but don't make the points to pointy, or they might turn brown too quickly.
For reference, the crescents and my Mum's stumpy little finger: [ ;) ]
Put the baking sheet into the pre-heated oven (180° C) at medium height for 12-15 minutes. This is where the size of the crescents and your shaping skills come into play. Be sure to check on them after 10 minutes are over, you never know.
They should look like this when they're ready:
Get them out of the oven (and put the second sheet in, this much dough should be enough for 2 1/2 sheets of cookies), let them cool down for 2-3 minutes (they should still be as hot as possible though!), and then roll them in the vanilla-flavoured sugar, like so:
Et voilà:
Vanilla crescents! :D
Happy munching. (As an aside, these cookies taste best a couple of days after making them rather than fresh out of the oven.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-07 07:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-07 07:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-07 07:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 02:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 02:56 pm (UTC)Vanilla sugar is a mixture that you can buy here in Germany. Just add a little bit of extra sugar and some vanilla. When the sugar mixed with the vanilla looks a bit dubious colour-wise, it's the right ratio. (You can also google "Vanillezucker".
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 04:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 05:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 05:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 06:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 06:41 pm (UTC)Und: Yay icon!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 06:42 pm (UTC);)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-11 07:50 pm (UTC)I like old recipes very much and pry it from all our friends :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-11 08:12 pm (UTC)I love old recipes, too! Got a whole stash of old recipe books from my great-grandparents and grandparents that I haven't even looked at yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-19 07:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-19 08:00 pm (UTC)This is technically a Polish recipe I suppose, since my family is from East Pomerania. :)
They really *do* taste best a couple of days after baking them. They get a little crumbly after 10 days or so.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-19 08:09 pm (UTC)I also rolled mine in powdered sugar and they're a bit blunter on the ends than yours. There were at least 6 layers of them in this huge tin:
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-19 08:20 pm (UTC)ETA: It's probably the eggs. But who knows ...