Vanillekipferl – Vanilla Crescent Cookies

Make the vanilla sugar

1. Add the sugar and vanilla bean into a small food processor and pulse several times, until the vanilla bean is broken up and the sugar is speckled with the vanilla. You can keep any leftover vanilla sugar in a jar to use in other baking recipes.

Make the cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Place the flour, sugar, ground almonds and baking powder into a mixing bowl and briefly stir to combine.
2. Add the vanilla bean paste and cold cubed unsalted butter and beat together with a hand mixer until you have crumbly texture.
3. Add the egg and beat together until the dough comes together. Use a spatula to scrape the dough onto plastic wrap. Wrap the dough and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
4. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 20 equal pieces (keep any dough you are not using straight away in the fridge). Roll out each piece to a cylinder, dusting with a little flour or powdered sugar as needed, making the ends slightly thinner. Bend to form a small crescent and place on a lined cookie sheet.
5. Repeat until you have used all of the dough, spacing the cookies out so that they bake evenly. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies just starting getting golden at the edges. Take out of the oven and leave them to cool on the tray for a few minutes so that they firm up.
6. Dust the warm cookies with powdered sugar or dredge them in homemade vanilla sugar – just be very careful when handling the cookies as they are quite fragile! Store the cookies in a cookie tin for up to three weeks.