Almond Crescent Cookies

Israel’s almond trees start blooming on Tu B’Shvat. This is true, folks. I have seen it myself.

I had meant to pair these cookies  with the photo of the flowering almond tree in honor of the day, here on the blog. But Life got in the way. The cookies were delicious anyway, melting on the tongue with subtle nuttiness and leaving a whisper of powdered sugar on the hips…er, lips.

So here’s the recipe. It’s so easy to make, kids enjoy doing it. Just get them to wash up afterwards (says Grandma, darkly).

Almond Crescent Cookies

Yield: about 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine or unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (I use vanilla)

1 cup powdered sugar

a pinch of salt

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups finely-ground almonds

more powdered sugar for covering the cookies

Note: the ground almonds I bought looked like this:

I thought that too coarse, so I ran them through the food processor, watching carefully lest they grind up into almond butter. I got this more satisfactory texture:

Method:

Preheat the oven to 325 F – 160 C

1. Beat the margarine or butter with the flavoring till it’s light and creamy.

2. Add the powdered sugar and beat again till the mass is light.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, beating to mix thoroughly.

4. Knead the dough briefly. It should feel smooth and firm.

If it doesn’t hold together, add flour cautiously, by tablespoons, to achieve firmness.

5. Take pieces of dough about the size of a heaping teaspoon. Roll them into thick strands about 3″ – 7.4 cm and shape them into crescents. Place each crescent on your baking pan as it’s finished, spacing them well apart.

Another note: this dough is very delicate and the strands will fall apart with too much handling. Use your fingertips to roll. It literally takes about 2 seconds per strand. If the raw crescent looks weird, just squash it up and start over. It takes a little practice to get regular crescents. The middle of the strand will be fatter than the tips, and that’s fine.

Bake for 15 minutes. The cookies should still be pale, or only a little brown at the tips.

Sift powdered sugar over the cookies while they’re still on the baking pan.  Or let them cool for a few minutes, then drag them through the sugar. Either way, put them on a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

These cookies are almost irresistible fresh out of the oven, but the flavor improves over 24 hours.

Last note: if your ground almonds have been peeled, the cookies will be white.