Vanillekipferl

Vanillekipferl are small, crescent-shaped vanilla cookies that are very popular in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. They are originally made with walnuts, but they can also be made with almonds or hazelnuts. And while I love these cookies, I have never truly tried them myself and now that I have I wanna make them again and again and again. They fill your whole house with warmth and a sweet vanilla scent that you want to put in a jar and keep forever. Plus, they are very fun to make and I highly recommend doing them with someone because it will lighten your mood. Trust me, I did it with my younger brother and his looked really hilarious…. Or lets just say, his did not necessarily look like a crescent, but rather were shaped like a little rainbow. But whatever they looked like, they turned out great and I hope you like them as much as we do.

Vanillekipferl Ingredients

• Almond Flour - For a nuttier and more intense taste, simply swap the almond flour with hazelnut flour. Otherwise almond flour gives these delicious cookies their delicateness and special taste.

• Vanilla Sugar - We used two small packages from Dr. Oetker which is about 9 grams. each.

• Margarine - The margarine must remain firm (room temperature), i.e. neither melted nor ice cold.

Vanillekipferl Tips

• Kneading - Once the margarine has been added to the bowl with the flour it will look like you would need a lot more margarine to combine everything, but trust me; resist the feeling of adding more of one ingredient or you will get a different result.

• Fridge - It’s essential to put the dough into the fridge, so that the dough reaches the right temperature and is not too soft and oily when kneaded.

• Prepare your sugar vanilla mixture - Once you have taken the cookies out of the oven they need to be dusted with sugar and vanilla and in order to create this mixture, we simply used powdered sugar and combined it with two additional packs of Dr. Oetker vanilla sugar. Then put this mixture into a shallow bowl (making sure you have enough to coat all the cookies).

• The Last Step - After you have taken out the Vanillekipferl and they are still warm, carefully coat them with the sugar mixture. Place the coated cookies on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Ingredients

Medium - 5 trays - 1 hour 30 minute 

• 400g All-Purpose Flour

• 250g Almond Flour

• 140g Powdered Sugar

• 18g Vanilla Sugar

• 350g Margarine, not melted

• 1 cup Powdered Sugar

• 2 Packs of Vanilla Sugar

Instructions

1. Measure and mix vanilla sugar, powdered sugar, almond flour, and all-purpose flour in a large bowl. Use a whisk to ensure that there are no lumps.

2. Add the not melted but room temperature margarine to the bowl. Knead with your hands until all the ingredients form a dough.

3. After you've kneaded a nice dough, shape it into a ball and put it in the fridge for about 1 hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 320°F and prepare some baking trays with non-stick sheets.

5. Now take the bowl with the dough out of the fridge in order to form the cookies.

6. To form them into a half moon, take some of the dough and roll it into a rope, 10 inches long. Cut the rope into 10 even pieces. Then, roll each piece into a 2-3 inch rope and shape it into a crescent. Repeat this with the rest of the dough and put the finished cookies onto a baking sheet - about 1 inch apart.

7. Bake the cookies one tray after the other for about 10 minutes until the tips of the crescent moons are just beginning to turn light golden brown. While the cookies are in the oven, keep an eye on them so they don't turn black!

8. Into a shallow bowl, add the powdered sugar and the vanilla sugar and combine.

9. Then, when the cookies are ready to take out of the oven, gently coat them with the vanilla-sugar mixture - you can use a fork to turn the cookies around so that they are coated entirely.

10. Place the coated cookies on a wire rack to finish cooling and continue this process with all the other cookies.