Those of you who are familiar with my recipes know I am really not a big dessert baker, but I oh-so-love the flavor of these cookies - especially during the holidays! You can use just about any other type of nut your heart desires, but if you choose to try peanuts make sure no one you might serve them to is allergic.
My next personal favorite choice for these crescents are almonds and now that I've finally learned the secret of how to easily crack Brazil nuts, they will be the nut of choice in the next batch ;-)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until completely blended. Gradually add flour and salt and then stir in the hazelnuts.
Shape dough into about 2 1/2 to 3 inch logs and bend into crescent shapes. Place the crescents 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until set and bottoms are just barely golden.
Meanwhile place confectioners' sugar in a medium bowl to prepared for dusting.
Remove cookies from oven and let stand for only 1 minute and then gently roll each cookie in confectioners' sugar. For a white fluffy coating, roll each cookie twice.
Cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature.
By Deeli from Richland, WA
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Yum! You may not bake much, but when you do, you come up with a winner! Okay, I'll bite: What is the easy way of cracking Brazil nuts? Cay from FL
Hi Cay, The secret is freezing the Brazil nuts for about six hours, because it pulls the meat away from the shell, and then crack them (not too vigorously) at the seam. I haven't tried it with other nuts yet but I'll bet it would work on most of the hard to crack type. :-)
Deeli
I will make the cookies, but I'll use pecans instead of the hazelnuts, Deeli. Pecans are my favorite nuts in all this world although I'm very fond of Brazil Nuts and Walnuts as well. We eat raw almonds out of hand because they are so good for us. LOL That's as good an excuse as I can come up with.
Love the tip about shelling the Brazil nuts too. When we were kids, my sister and I would get 2 bricks. laying down the nut on one brick and whacking it with the other one. Well, it got the job done even though it wasn't a very good way. I love a black walnut cake, but have never found a way to crack those nuts either except by sheer force of a hammer. We'll have to try the freezing trick on them one day if I ever find anymore of them. They don't seem to grow anywhere around us here, but maybe in north Florida, we'll find some.
Thanks for the wonderful cookie recipe, Deeli. Reminds me a bit of our SnowBall Cookies.
Pookarina
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