Vanilla Crescents (vanilkové rohlíčky) are a regular at the Czech Christmas tables. These Christmas cookies are iconic for the holiday.
Vanilla crescents could as well be called walnut crescents in my house because that is why we love them. You can use variety of nuts to make them, however, I find none surpass the walnuts.
If you inherited a set of Czech cookie cutters and molds, you might have one of the traditional crescent molds. They were carved in wood and made in a way to survive decades. If you don’t have an old one, you can just buy one here or shape the crescents with your hands.
Would you like to try more Czech Christmas cookies? There’s a plenty of recipes here.
Ingredients
- 180 g/6.3 oz of ground walnuts
- 300 g/10.6 oz of all-purpose flour or hladká mouka (see Czech Flour Guide)
- 400 g/14.1 oz of butter
- 120 g/4.2 oz of vanilla sugar
- 4 tbsp of milk
- powder sugar for coating
- semi coarse flour for coating the mold
- crescent mold
How to make Vanilla Crescents
Let the butter soften and progressively incorporate flour, walnuts, vanilla sugar and milk. Let the dough rest for a couple of hours in the fridge and preheat the over on 170°C/338°F.
Coat the mold lightly with semi coarse flour and stuff some of the dough in. Turn the mold around and tap it lightly on the table. If you have a hard time making the crescents fall out, next time try coating the mold more or stuffing the dough less..
Bake the vanilla crescents for 20 minutes and coat them with powder sugar while they’re still hot.
