Czech Christmas magic: vanilla crescents / Ceska Vanocni specialitka: Vanilkove rohlicky

If you haven’t tasted vanilla crescents (vanilkove rohlicky) yet you haven’t quite lived your life into the full. They are absolutely the best Christmas cookies this earth has ever had. Despite the simplicity of the recipe some kind of a Christmas magic happens during the cooking process and an art of perfection is born…

My grandma would always make batches and batches of Vanilkove rohlicky so that we wouldn’t run out during the Christmas season. Since we helped ourselves to them about 10 times a day – despite my grandma’s attempts – we ended up being out of them about 3 days after Christmas. Then we had to “get to work” and finish up the rest of the other Christmas cookies; what can I tell you…life was rough back then!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups of ground walnuts
• 1/2 tsp salt
• about 2 cups of powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
• ground up skin from 1 lemon

Method:

1. Mix butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and walnuts together
2. Mix in the flour (1/2 cup at a time)
3. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper and refrigerate for about 30 minutes
4. Preheat the oven for 325 degrees
5. Lightly butter two 12″ x 12″ baking sheets
6. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of chilled dough and place them on a floured board
7. Rolled each piece into a strip about 1 inch wide and 1/2inch thick; shape each piece into a crescent (semi-circle)
8. Arrange the crescents at least 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheet
9. Bake in oven for 12 to 15 minutes
10. Transfer them onto a cake rack and coat them with powdered sugar while they are still warm
11. Enjoy!

Note: one can substitute ground walnuts for ground almonds as well.

Another note: the older the cookies get, the better they taste! Store them in the fridge.