Crumbly, sweet and aromatic: vanilla crescents are the absolute gourmet crescent at Christmas
Created: 12/03/2022, 10:00 am
By: Sandra Keck
This recipe tastes like Christmas: delicate vanilla crescents.
© Simply Tasty
The best comes at the end!
For me, vanilla crescents are not only among the best Christmas cookies, but also in the top category.
They're not that easy to bake.
It starts with the dough and doesn't end with the shaping.
Here I am a bit of a perfectionist and responsible for baking croissants in my family every year.
Because the crescents have to be small and as even as possible for me - that works sometimes better and sometimes worse.
The advantage of uniform croissants, however, is clearly the baking time.
This is then the same for all cookies on the baking tray and you make your life easier.
In order for this to succeed, there are various shaping techniques that I have compiled for you below.
That's how it's done:
These ingredients are required:
Dough:
300 grams of wheat flour
220g butter, diced
100 g almonds, ground
100 g powdered sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
Icing Sugar Mixture:
100 g powdered sugar
2 packets of bourbon vanilla sugar
The preparation is so easy:
For the dough:
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
Add the remaining dry ingredients (ground almonds, sugar, salt) and mix.
Cut the vanilla pod lengthways and carefully scrape out the vanilla pulp with the back of a knife.
Put the pulp in the mixing bowl.
Add the egg yolk and knead with the dough hook of a hand mixer or with your hands to form a homogeneous dough.
Shape the dough into a roll, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Divide the dough into portions and shape into thin rolls.
Cut the dough rolls into pieces 4-5 cm long, roll the ends a little thinner and shape them into croissants and place them on the baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake in a preheated oven at 160 °C for about 8 minutes until light brown.
The baking time may vary depending on the size and thickness of the vanilla crescents.
For the icing sugar mixture:
mix the icing sugar with the bourbon vanilla sugar on a flat plate.
Roll warm vanilla crescents in it.
Tip: The timing after baking is crucial!
If the croissants are too hot, they break easily.
If they are too cold, the icing sugar will no longer stick well.
After a few sheets, you'll get the hang of it!
Relish!
How are things going now with the Kipferl?
At best, this shouldn’t be the case in your Christmas bakery … that’s why I’ve put together a few
techniques
that will hopefully make it easier for you to shape the vanilla crescent:
Freehand (for professionals):
you simply pluck the amount of dough from the large ball of dough and estimate the size of the croissant by eye.
Weighing (for perfectionists):
the dough is first cut into strands and then into pieces.
These are then all weighed again to the exact gram, so that your vanilla crescents are the same size.
Cut out crescents (for the impatient)
: Roll out the dough about 0.5 - 1 cm thick and cut out using a crescent cutter.
There are also special Kipferl cutters.
Vanilla crescent sheet (for the lazy):
the dough is spread into the indentations of a special baking sheet.
For this method, you usually have to use a different recipe, since common vanilla croissant dough, which consists of shortcrust pastry, is not easy to spread.
Here's the product.
The perfect vanilla crescents melt in your mouth!
The recipe is here.
© Simply Tasty
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