Hazelnut Crescent Cookies

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I myself got wrapped up in everything and haven’t been here in a while. Hubby and I made a lot of different cookies during the month of December, and we agreed that these were our favorites. These Hazelnut Crescent Cookies are from the same cookbook as the  Chocolate Viennese Finger Cookies, The Cookie Lover’s Cookbook, that my Nana gave me a few years ago.

These cookies are soft, buttery, nutty, and not too sweet. They are absolutely delicious with a cup of coffee – dangerous!

Once you’ve made the dough, roll 1 Tablespoon of dough into a small crescent shape. The cookies will puff up a bit as they bake.

After they’ve been baked, drizzle them with chocolate or dust them with powdered sugar. I noticed that the chocolate didn’t really stick after we dusted them with powdered sugar, so if you want them chocolatey, definitely do that first. . They also don’t need the chocolate and are delicious either way.

 

• Servings: 24
• Time: 20-25 mins
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour (you can substitute all purpose flour, cookies will just be a bit denser)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup toasted hazelnuts
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp almond liqueur
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Powdered Sugar for dusting
• 6 oz semisweet chocolate for dipping or drizzling (optional)

Recipe:

Sift flours and salt into a medium bowl, and stir together to mix well.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Farenheit. In a food processor, process the toasted hazelnuts until finely chopped.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter for about 1 minute until creamy. Add the sugar and beat for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the  liqueur and vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture until just blended, then fold in the finely chopped hazelnuts.

With lightly floured hands, form 1 Tbsp scoops of the dough into small crescents. Place crescents on an ungreased baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are set and the cookies are lightly golden, rotating the baking sheet from front to back halfway through the cooking time. Remove the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove each cookie to a  wire rack to cool.

Arrange the crescents side by side on a wire rack. If opting to drizzle them with chocolate, melt chocolate and drizzle over cookies. Finish with a dusting of powdered sugar.

I hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Viennese Finger Cookies

A couple of years ago my Nana gave me two cookie cookbooks for Christmas. She always makes a great collection of cookies this time of the year, and I love that she shares that passion with me. I have been slowly working my way through the books and identifying new favorites. Over the weekend, hubby helped me make these Chocolate Viennese Finger Cookies that we both loved! They are the perfect coffee cookie – which means I have been eating way too many of them with breakfast.

The dough was very easy to make. Combine all of your dry ingredients, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla, and slowly add in your dry mixture.

Pipe out the dough into chocolate “fingers.” I actually think you could roll and cut these out, or even drop them onto the cookie sheet. They will look different, and the cooking time might vary slightly, but I think that it would work. Or you could pipe them into rosettes. We tried the “S” shape encouraged in the recipe, but did not have much luck.

Once the cookies have baked and cooled, dust them with powdered sugar.

And drizzle them with melted chocolate. A few tips: if your chocolate isn’t very “drizzly” – add a bit of crisco or butter. Also, I found it helpful to move the fork very fast in order to shake the chocolate off of the fork.

Chocolate Viennese Fingers

• Servings: 30
• Time: 15-20 mins
• Difficulty: Medium
• Print

Recipe:
Vegetable oil for greasing
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unseated cocoa powder
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
confectioner’s sugar for dusting
4 oz bittersweet chocolate melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray or grease 2 large baking sheets. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and cornstarch into a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and confectioner’s sugar for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy. On low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture and vanilla extract until a soft dough forms.

Spoon the dough into a large pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe about 24 3-inch fingers or S shapes 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until set and slightly firm when touched with a fingertip, rotating the baking sheets from the top to the bottom shelf and from front to back halfway through the cooking time. Remove the baking sheets to wire racks to cool for about 15 minutes until the cookies are firm. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
Arrange close together on a wire rack and dust with confectioner’s sugar. Drizzle with melted chocolate. Set on wax paper.