Czech Christmas magic: vanilla crescents / Ceska Vanocni specialitka: Vanilkove rohlicky
December 8, 2007
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 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:
- Mix butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
- Mix in the flour (1/2 cup at a time)
- Add walnuts, vanilla extract and salt
- Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper and refrigerate for about 30 minutes
- Preheat the oven for 350 degrees
- Lightly butter two 12″ x 12″ baking sheets
- Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of chilled dough and place them on a floured board
- Rolled each piece into a strip about 1 inch wide and 1/2inch thick; shape each piece into a crescent (semi-circle)
- Arrange the crescents at least 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheet
- Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes
- Transfer them onto a cake rack and coat them with powdered sugar while they are still hot
- Enjoy!
Note: one can substitute ground walnuts for ground almonds as well.
Another note: the older the cookies get, the better they taste!
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!
The crescents are also great with ground pecans!
The real vanilla crescent rolls should be baked with ground hazelnuts and coated in vanilla sugar when they are still hot.
You are right Ludmila about coating them with sugar when they are still hot…I will change it!
Also, I have never had them with hazelnuts, my grandma would always make them with walnuts…
[...] a Vesele! Jestlize mate smazeneho kapra nebo nadivaneho krocana, vanilkove rohlicky nebo “apple pie” preji vam, at vam na stedry vecer (nebo stedry den?) chutna! A at [...]
Guess what else we’re having for Christmas! (Thank you, thank you)
Hi Katie, these are my all-time favorites…. I hope you will enjoy them.The great think about it is that you can store them in the fridge/freezer forever!
Oh yeah. Those are my favorite from my favorite list. I can practically smell them. We too make them with hazelnuts instead of walnuts. I may try them with walnuts this year too, since they are soo much less expensive here then walnuts. I love the final product but oh boy, did we always have to make a double batch of the dough. We would eat half of it while making rohlicky. And they do store great. Did I mention I have a box in my fridge from last year that I actually brought from Czech? I had to hide them from my daughter (5) or she would eat them in one sitting. she loves them. Thank you.
Oh, why I left the post too. NOt sure if any of you have the same experience. I have made these couple of times here in the states, but found out that the powdered sugar here is different from the Czech.Yeah, I thought I was crazy too at first. But it did not hold as well so I had to alter my recipe. Just wondering if this recipe is based on traditional Czech or proven to work with us ingredients.
Thanks
Hi Lenka,
yes this recipe is the US version (my version but since I use only US ingredients it is the US Version
)
I haven’t noticed the difference in the US vs. the Czech powdered sugar. I just make sure to bathe those things in it as much as possible and they do come out looking like snowmen
PS: good luck with hiding those frozen rohlicky in front of your daughter! Doufam, ze se ti to povede!