Who invented butter-almond crescents, the sugar-dusted confections served at Christmas time in lots of elements of the world? Some say the cookies had been invented by a Viennese baker who adopted the form of the Ottoman flag’s crescent moon to have a good time victory over the Turks within the seventeenth century. However I’m not so positive, as crescent almond cookies exist far past Vienna. In North Africa, for instance, they’re referred to as gazelle horns…
Biscuits de Noël aux amandes / Butter-almond crescents
Butter-almond crescents are additionally French, as they’re served in Alsace from Introduction to Christmas. Within the States, they had been a specialty of my Jewish mom, and much more so of her mom, Hilda, who had roots in Vienna. Fortunately they each handed the recipe right down to me — I’ve handwritten copies from every of them — and at the moment I wished to share it with you. It feels applicable, at this parlous second of world historical past, to mark a vacation that’s dedicated to peace on earth with a cookie loved by Christians, Muslims and Jews alike.
Butter-almond crescents, identified within the German-speaking world as vanillekipferl, are an almond shortbread flavored with vanilla and dusted with confectioner’s sugar, aka powdered sugar, icing sugar or sucre glace. Making them is each straightforward and enjoyable. Butter, flour, sugar and vanilla are blended collectively to type a dough. The dough is chilled earlier than being shaped into crescent shapes, baked briefly, then dipped into the powdered sugar.
The dough could also be shaped into different shapes, corresponding to disks topped with a candied cherry or a small little bit of candied lemon, orange or lime rind. This makes for a colourful show if you deliver the cookies out over the vacations. However beware — as soon as the cookies come out of the oven, it may be laborious to maintain them round lengthy sufficient to have any left by Christmas. This occurred this 12 months. I made the cookies early to have the ability to write this submit. I had meant to save lots of all of them till Christmas Eve, however my daughter had one other concept…
The remaining butter-almond cookies have now been stashed within the freezer together with one other of my mom’s specialties, bourbon balls. I haven’t posted that recipe but, nevertheless it’s just like the recipe for chocolate truffles when you’d wish to create a blended plate of fairly sweets. I made the bourbon balls early this 12 months, too, so as to have the ability to ship each sorts of cookies to my brother and sister-in-law in California. Comfortable holidays, Ben and Mary!
With Christmas solely ten days away, this can be a good time to take a look at The On a regular basis French Chef‘s Vacation Menus, with concepts for festive meals with a French contact for omnivores, vegetarians and vegans. Right here’s wishing you a joyous vacation season. And comfortable cooking!