Baking enthusiasts, too this yearBake cookiesbut are looking for simple recipes that are still delicious, they usually choose vanilla crescents. Not only do they taste good, but they are also relatively easy to prepare for beginner bakers. Nevertheless, there are a few things to consider if you want to make really successful vanilla crescents yourself. Is there a trick to make them easier to shape? And how do you make the dough light and airy so that the cookies later melt in your mouth but don't break? We provide you with the necessary tips and tricks forenviable vanilla cookies.
Make your own vanilla crescents with the right ingredients
What you should know about egg yolks and egg whites
If you want to make your own vanilla crescents that melt in your mouth, don't use the whole egg. You will get a much finer dough if you only use the egg yolks. They also give it a nice color.
Die Butter
There are recipes for vanilla crescentswithout butter, but in the original it plays an important role because, among other things, it gives the pastry its typical aroma. Above all, avoid replacing it with margarine, as it also makes the cookies easier to break later. It is also important that you do not warm the butter before processing. If it is too soft, like margarine, it will make the finished pastry more brittle.
But how else should you process the hard, cold butter? Cut it into smaller pieces as it will then be much easier to mix with the rest of the ingredients. And that brings us to the last tip regarding the butter: work as quickly as possible so that it doesn't get too warm. Of course, this works best with a food processor, but also with your hands. You should not underestimate this step! The dough is regularly refrigerated later, but that won't help if the butter has become too warm during processing.
Make your own vanilla crescents – The vanilla
For some people it is a disappointment that after all the effort the crescents don't taste as much like vanilla as expected. You can change this and make delicious vanilla crescents yourself by using real vanilla. Admittedly, this ingredient is more expensive than vanilla extract, but if you value intense flavor, you should invest in it. If you decide against using real vanilla pulp, you can also use another trick to intensify the aroma: let the finished cookies rest for a few days, ideally a week. Decide for yourself whether you have that kind of stamina or whether you would rather buy the vanilla...
Vanilla crescent tips – Process the dough
Chill in the fridge while you make the vanilla crescents yourself
Wrap the finished dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours. This creates the right basis for you to then be able to make the perfect, non-brittle vanilla crescents yourself. Because, as already mentioned several times, cold butter is absolutely necessary for this. Even while you are shaping the vanilla crescents, you should always put the dough back in the fridge. This means that you only take a small part of it, which you then shape. And so that the shaping works quickly, we will explain to you below how it works.
Forming vanilla crescents – tips for a beautiful half moon
If you want to make real vanilla crescents yourself, you will of course also value the right shape. However, beginners in particular don't necessarily have an idea of the quickest and easiest way to create the typical crescent moon. There are nowspecial baking sheets, onto which the dough is pressed and the excess is then scraped off with a spatula, but this is also an art in itself and not for everyone. You can also use the moons as followsshape by hand:
Cut off a piece of dough (don't forget to put the rest back in the fridge!). Then roll a snake out of the piece that is as thick as you want the croissants to be. Then cut the snake into 1 to 2 cm long pieces. It is important that all pieces are as large as possible so that they can be prepared equally quickly in the oven. Then, using your fingers, bend each piece slightly inward on both sides to create the crescent shape. You can gently press the ends together to create rounded tips. Place each finished croissant immediately on a baking tray lined with baking paper and try to work quickly.
Do you have small ones?Mondausstecher? If not, get some so that you can form the dough for vanilla crescents as quickly as possible. The whole thing not only works lightning fast, but is also extremely easy, so even your children can join in. If you want, you can press the ends together a little or round them more to create the typical vanilla crescent shape.
Bake the vanilla crescents and don’t lose sight of them!
As you can see, the cookies aren't particularly big or thick. Accordingly, they don't take anything long to finish baking. Therefore, it is important that you keep checking them. Because while they appear light and raw at first, the next they can be brown, hard and dry. If you want to make vanilla crescents yourself, generally allow a baking time of 10 to 12 minutes. They should definitely still be light. If they still seem soft when you lightly press them with your finger, that's not necessarily a sign that they're not ready yet. Because while they cool down, they harden a little.
Make your own vanilla crescents and add the right sugar
When lightly dusted with powdered sugar, the crescents not only look even tastier, they are too! To ensure that the whole thing looks good, you should not roll them in powdered sugar, but rather dust them with the help of a fine sieve. Rolling also works, but it becomes uneven. So that the sugar can really stick well, the cookies should still be hot at this point. Then let them cool completely on a wire rack or rack.
Store the “Vanillekipferl” cookies properly
Making vanilla crescents yourself is one thing. Now you have prepared tons of cookies, which you can't eat all at once and of course you shouldn't. So where do they go so that they last a long time and don't dry out? Well, cookie jars weren't called that for nothing. They are perfect for keeping all kinds of cookies fresh and fluffy. If they do become hard over time, you can also use the following trick to get them soft again: Leave them overnighta few apple slicesin the can. These then release a small amount of moisture, which is enough to make the vanilla crescents appear freshly baked again.
Vanilla crescent recipe
Would you like to finally get started and make your own vanilla crescents that follow all of our tips? No problem, because this is what follows:
For 60 pieces:
- 200 g cold butter cut into pieces
- 2 egg yolks
- 275 g Flour
- 75g sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- 100 g ground skinless almonds
- 2 packets bourbon vanilla sugar (regular is fine too)
- pinch of salt
- 50g powdered sugar
Scrape the pulp from the vanilla bean by cutting it in half lengthwise. Then process these as quickly as possible with the butter, egg yolks, flour, salt,the almondsand sugar into a dough (with your hands or a mixer with a dough hook). Form the dough into a large ball, wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for 2 hours or at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan. Spread some flour on a suitable work surface, take the dough out of the fridge and the foil and cut off a piece. It's best to take a smaller piece at the beginning until you get the hang of shaping the crescents and get a feel for it. Then you can try it with a larger piece. Put the remaining dough back in the fridge.
Bake and decorate crescents
Form a roll with a diameter of approx. 1.5 cm from the cut piece. Cut these into smaller, equal pieces (e.g. 4 to 5 cm long) and then shape them into half-moons as shown above in the instructions, pressing the ends together slightly to create tips. Alternatively, you can roll out the dough thickly and then use a moonshineCut out cookie cutter. Spread crescents on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake the vanilla cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure they don't get too brown. They are ready when the tips start to change color very slightly. Take them out of the oven, mix the powdered sugar with the vanilla sugar and then sprinkle the crescents with it through a sieve. While they cool completely, you can cut out and bake the next batch.
By the way, you can also dip the tops of the crescents in chocolate that you first melt in a water bath instead of sprinkling them with powdered sugar. Or how about combining both?
Make your own vanilla crescents – tip without eggs
The egg yolk gives the cookies their soft texture, but you can also leave them out. To do this, reduce the amount of flour to 250 g and add 75 g of powdered sugar instead of normal sugar. The remaining ingredients from the recipe remain the same.
Vanilla crescents without almonds
Would you like to leave out the almonds? Then prepare a dough for approx. 50 pieces using the following ingredients and process the dough into the typical cookies as described above.
- 200 g Flour
- 70g powdered sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 g cold butter cut into small pieces
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 TL Vanilleextrakt
After you make these vanilla crescents yourself, sprinkle them with powdered sugar. To do this, mix 75 g with 3 packets of bourbon vanilla sugar.
Would you like another shortcrust pastry recipe? How about thosedelicious Hussar donuts?
