Vanillekipferl are vanilla crescent cookies filled with nuts and dusted in a generous coating of vanilla sugar. These delicate cookies are perfect for holiday cookie trays and are a popular European treat.
Vanillekipferl are crescent shaped cookies that are popular in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia. Their signature taste comes from vanilla sugar, a common baking ingredient in Europe.
While vanilla sugar is not common in the United States, it is easy to find online. I've also included a few simple ways to make your own at home!
Vanillekipferl remind me of a buttery shortbread cookie with the addition of ground nuts. They're perfect for your next holiday cookie tray!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Unsalted butter - Can be substituted with salted butter if needed (you'll also want to omit the listed salt).
- All-purpose flour - Adds structure to your cookies. I have not tested this recipe with other types of flours, so I can't say how your cookies would turn out by making flour substitutions. If you don't have all-purpose flour on hand, I recommend searching for a recipe that can be made without substitutions for best success.
- Ground almonds - Can be substituted with almond flour or other ground nuts, like walnuts, hazelnuts, or pecans.
- Confectioner's sugar - I use confectioner's sugar in this dough because it's slightly easier to work with in a shortbread type dough when compared to granulated sugar. It also gives the cookies a tender, soft texture when baked. You'll also need a bit of confectioner's sugar for dusting on top.
- Vanilla sugar - This ingredient can be omitted if you don't have any on hand. I've also included instructions on how to make vanilla sugar below (and in the recipe card) if you'd like to make your own.
- Salt - Enhances the flavor of your cookies without making them "salty".
Making ground almonds
If you don't have ground almonds on hand, it is easy to make your own with whole, raw almonds.
Add your almonds to a food processor, then pulse until you have a coarse meal (like shown above). You can use this method for any type of nuts. Be careful not to blend your nuts too much, or you'll end up with almond butter.
Vanilla sugar
Vanilla sugar is a common baking ingredient in Europe and widely available in stores overseas. However, it is uncommon in the United States.
Purchase online - I found these packets of vanillinzucker on Amazon, which I used in this recipe (and in my Zimtsterne recipe).
Make your own with vanilla beans - I recommend checking out this post by The Kitchen Maus: Vanilla Sugar. She compares several types of vanilla sugar and shows you how to make your own using vanilla beans.
Make your own with vanilla extract - In a food processor, combine ¼ cup of granulated sugar with ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Spread it out to dry. Once dried, the sugar will be clumpy. Transfer back to the food processor and pulse until you have a sugar consistency again.
Tips and tricks
For my full list of tips and tricks for making a perfect batch of cookies, check out my post: 10 tips for baking cookies
Measure flour correctly - The number one issue I see consistently in baking is the improper measuring of flour. Adding too much flour to a baking recipe will make the dough crumbly and dry with a bland flavor. While this crescent cookie dough is a little crumbly (it is a tender, buttery cookie much like a shortbread cookie), it will come together with a little shaping. To properly measure flour, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale. If you don't have a kitchen scale, gently stir your flour with a spoon, then spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level off the top with a knife. Scooping flour directly from a bin with your cup compacts the flour into the cup, adding up to 25% extra flour to the recipe.
Chill your dough - The step of chilling your dough should not be skipped for several reasons. Chilling the dough helps the flavors to meld, but it also helps your dough firm up, making it easier to manipulate and roll into balls. Chilled dough also spreads less in the oven.
Shaping your crescents - I recommend using a medium (1.5 tablespoon) cookie scoop to portion your dough. Roll the ball of dough between your hands to make a log, lay onto your baking sheet, then gently turn the ends into a crescent shape.
Handle dough minimally - The more you handle the dough, the softer and stickier it becomes. The warmer the dough, the more it will spread when baking. If needed, return your dough to the refrigerator until it firms up again.
Don't grease your baking sheets - Adding a layer of grease to a baking sheet causes cookies to spread more in the oven while they bake. Instead, I recommend using parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Keep an eye on your cookies in the oven - Baking times in any recipe are recommendations based on the writer's experience and can vary greatly based on your own oven settings. Ovens can run hotter or colder than the next, even when set to the same temperature. I recommend keeping an eye on your cookies instead of the time, and take them out when they look done.
Storage
Leftover crescent cookies will keep for up to 5 days in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. Homemade cookies begin to dry out after about two days, so I recommend adding a slice of bread to your cookie container. The bread dries out instead of the cookies, helping keep them fresh for longer.
Baked cookies can also be frozen for three months or more in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator. To thaw, place on the countertop for an hour or more.
Frequently asked questions
If your cookies are dry and also bland, it sounds like too much flour was added to the recipe. I highly recommend measuring flour by weight instead of using a measuring cup, which can add up to 25% extra flour to a recipe. See my section above on how to prevent dry cookies for more tips.
This recipe contains the proper ratios of wet to dry ingredients, including plenty of moisture-retaining ingredients, and will not turn out dry or bland if the proper measurements, ingredients, and baking recommendations are followed.
This can happen when your dough is too warm or the baking sheet was greased instead of lined with parchment.
- Don't skip the step of refrigerating your dough. Refrigerating not only helps the flavors meld, but also makes the dough easier to roll into balls and reduces spreading.
- If your dough is still spreading in the oven, try refrigerating the dough crescents and sheet pan for 10 minutes, then transfer directly into the oven.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. I do not recommend using a greased cookie sheet. A layer of grease/cooking spray makes cookies of any kind spread more in the oven.
The dough may be too cold (maybe left in the refrigerator too long), or too much flour was added to the dough. I highly recommend weighing your ingredients rather than scooping with a measuring cup, which often adds too much flour to the recipe.
- Leave dough on the counter top to warm slightly before baking. Cold dough spreads less and warm dough spreads more.
- If too much flour was added to your dough, you'll want to make sure your cookies aren't also overbaked - this combination results in a dry cookie.
Please see my section above, "ingredients and substitutions", to find my recommendations on substitutions. This recipe contains a short list of ingredients. For best results, I don't recommend substituting, omitting, or reducing any of the listed ingredients. Substitutions can cause cookies to turn out dry, spread too much, spread less, or taste bland. If you don't have a listed ingredient, I recommend searching for a recipe that's developed for the ingredients you do have.
Store cookies in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. To help extend their shelf life, add a slice of bread to the container. The bread adds moisture to the container, drying out the bread instead of the cookies. Replace as needed with a fresh slice.
If possible, serve homemade cookies the same day of baking. Cookies are their softest on the day of baking and will slowly lose moisture over time.
Cookies drying out? Here's a trick. Wrap a few cookies in a damp paper towel and microwave for 5 to 10 seconds. Warm cookies are soft cookies, and wrapping in a damp paper towel helps add moisture.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
Vanillekipferl - Vanilla Crescent Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, cold
- 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour, *measured properly
- 1 cup (96 g) ground almonds
- ½ cup (57 g) confectioner's sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar, *
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Dusting sugar
- ⅓ cup (38 g) confectioner's sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla sugar, *
Instructions
Cookies
- Slice cold butter into cubes. In a food processor, add flour and cubed butter. Pulse until butter is the size of small peas. Alternately, use a fork or pastry blender to incorporate butter into flour.
- Add the remaining ingredients to your flour mixture - ground almonds, confectioner's sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt. Mix until combined. Dough should be crumbly, but hold together when pinched between two fingers. If you're having trouble getting your dough to come together, add up to a tablespoon of water and mix until a dough forms.
- Toss dough out onto wax paper or parchment. Form into a disc, wrap, and refrigerate for one hour (or up to 24 hours).
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop dough using a medium (1.5 tablespoon) cookie scoop. Roll the ball of dough between your hands to make a log, lay 2 inches apart onto your baking sheet, then gently turn the ends into a crescent shape. Work quickly and handle the dough as little as possible to avoid warming it with your hands.
- Bake for about 12-14 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned and tops look set.
Dusting sugar
- Meanwhile, combine confectioner's sugar and vanilla sugar in a small bowl.
- Immediately upon removing cookies from the oven, top each cookie generously with prepared dusting sugar.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before storing.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- * How to measure flour properly: Use a kitchen scale to measure flour for accurate results every time. If you don't have a kitchen scale, use the spoon and level method. Stir the flour (especially if it's been packed down in a bag/container), then gently spoon into the measuring cup, leveling off the top with a knife. Scooping with a measuring cup compacts flour into the cup and adds up to 25% extra to the recipe, resulting in dry, bland cookies that don't spread properly.
- Buying vanilla sugar - If you do not have vanilla sugar on hand, it can be purchased on Amazon.
- Making vanilla sugar - In a food processor, combine ¼ cup of granulated sugar with ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Spread it out to dry. Once dried, the sugar will be clumpy. Transfer back to the food processor and pulse until you have a sugar consistency again.
- One packet of vanillezucker/vanillinzucker contains about 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla sugar. To make 24 cookies with this recipe, you will need 3 packets of vanilla sugar, or 4.5 teaspoons.
- Almonds can be substituted with walnuts or hazelnuts if desired.
- Be sure to check out my 10 tips for baking cookies, based on reader comments and questions!
The cookies were absolutely 5-star cookies, and I thank you for excellent ingredients and clear writing. The method, as written, didn’t work for this non-food-processor user, in Canadian winter.
Here’s why: using my pastry cutter until the cold butter was small-pea-sized, in my draughty 17C/62F kitchen, and then mixing in the other ingredients with my wooden stirring paddle, left me with crumbly, dry stuff that resembled fine, sandy river-shore gravel, more than dough.
Being an experienced pastry maker, I knew that a tablespoon of water would not be enough, but if I used enough water to get the dough to stick together, the cookies’ delicate texture would be lost.
What I did was put the dough in the microwave, on low power (30%) for ten seconds at a time, checking temperature & texture after each 10 seconds. After 2 turns, it was soft enough. I gently folded the dough a few times, briefly pressing it flat with cold hands, to form that disk. It worked! I then rested the dough at room temperature for about an hour. When I came back to it, I formed my crescents, & baked, according to the recipe.
I put my homemade vanilla sugar in a spice grinder, until it was a fine powder. I whisked about a quarter cup of the vanilla powder into 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar.
Setup for dusting the cookies: I had a pie dish with 1/2 of the sugar mix ready. Beside this I placed a rack, under which I had spread waxed paper. I placed a small sieve in the bowlful of sugar-mix on the other side of the rack.
Immediately on taking the cookies from the oven, I transferred them via spatula, three at a time, into the pie plate full of sugars. I shook the plate a little, to ensure their bottoms were sugared. Working quickly, I plucked them up and onto the rack. I then sprinkled them with sugar from the sieve. I repeated this until all the cookies were sugared. As I came to the end of the dozen on the cookie sheet, I had to put them back into the still-hot oven for a few minutes. If the cookies cool, the powder won’t stick.
I made these as a gift for a European friend. I can’t eat wheat, so I gave a cookie to my sweetheart to try. He said they were delicate in texture, deliciously subtle with ground hazelnuts and butter, and very, very good. Thank you for helping make my friend happy!
Hi John, I just doubled checked the measurements for this recipe and everything is correct. We follow King Arthur Flour's measurements for flour (https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart), which is 120 grams per cup of flour. We weigh our ingredients with a scale, and these are the measurements we used to make the recipe. One stick (1/2 cup) of butter is 113 grams, which is the measurement labeled on each stick of butter, for 226 grams total (you can see the measurements printed on the labels in the ingredient photo above).
Hello, I made these a couple weeks ago and they were very good. Similar to so many of the pecan crescents we have make every year at Christmas. This one was a nice slight change. A keeper. TU Pat
Can the dough be made ahead and frozen?
Yes, cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months!
I have a question. Can I use almond meal or the other nut meals that are available?
Hi Judy, yes you can! Walnuts and hazelnuts are also a great choice.