Vanillekipferl

Christmas is approaching, and so is the birth of our own baby boy. Every day that he doesn't make a move to appear, is another day for projects like making Christmas biscuits. So yesterday/today I decided to make zimtsterne, as has become traditional... And this time I decided to try vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) as well. This was initiated by thinking it might be a good way to use up the egg yolks left from the zimtsterne - I read that somewhere... but then I also read that traditionally vanillekipferl shouldn't have any egg in them to maximise their crumbliness. So anyway, once the seed was sown I wanted to make them, and having reviewed a few recipes decided to follow this one - with one egg yolk.

Makes c. 48 biscuits

For the dough:

120 g butter, at room temperature
50 g icing sugar
175 g flour 
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
100 g ground almonds
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt

For dredging after baking:
125 g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Beat together butter and 50 g icing sugar. Add the flour, 1 tbsp vanilla sugar, ground almonds, egg yolk and salt and mix until it comes together as a smooth dough. Split the dough into three equal parts and roll each into a cylinder with a diameter of 1 in. Wrap each cylinder in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least one hour, and up to 2 days.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 163C and line two baking sheets with paper. Take one roll from the fridge and cut it into slices 1/2 in long. Roll each slice between fingers until about 2 in long, with slightly tapered ends. Curve to make a crescent, and place on the baking sheet. Leave approx. 1 in space between biscuits on the sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, taking one roll out of the fridge at a time, until the sheets are full. Bake for 10-15 min, or until just lightly browned.

After removing from the oven, allow to sit on the baking sheet for c. 5 min. Mix 125 g icing sugar with 1 tbsp vanilla sugar in a shallow bowl. Carefully dredge each cookie in the icing sugar and place on a baking rack to cool.