My Gramma’s kitchen went into overdrive at the holidays. My hands-down favorite cookies were almond crescents. Gramma would make them several times before Christmas and hand them out as gifts. She also kept plenty for all of us. They are SO GOOD – literally melt-in-your-mouth good. And I don’t even like nuts, but because you grind them up in a food processor, you can’t really taste them.
Almond Crescents
you need:
1 cup soft shortening or butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup ground blanched almonds
1 2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
I think the reason I like these cookies lies in the fact that the almonds are ground up into tiny pieces.
Mix the shortening, granulated sugar, and ground almonds together until well-mixed.
Sift together the flour and salt.
Slowly fold the flour/salt into the wet ingredients.
Once the dough is well-mixed, wrap it in plastic wrap.
I gotta lotta dough!
You chill the dough for at least two to three hours. My Gramma would often chill it overnight. This is so the dough holds together when you roll it into cookies.
Once the dough is chilled, take pieces and roll them into pencil-thin 2 1/2 inch long cookies.
Form them into crescent shapes on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 14-16 minutes.
While the cookies bake, mix together the powdered sugar and cinnamon in a large dish.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.
Once the cookies have cooled a bit (so they are warm, not hot) put them in the platter with the sugar and cinnamon. The cookies are super-delicate and likely to break. It happens. Eat the broken pieces, they taste delicious. Cover the cookies in sugar, then carefully remove them and place them on a platter.
The few cookies that didn’t break!
Mike tastes them…I warned him not to breathe in when he took a bite – but he still did, and choked on the powdered sugar. Whoops!
He loved them! After I took this picture, Mike, my mom, and I wolfed down the entire batch. Merry Christmas to US!
Enjoy!!
- 1 cup soft shortening or butter
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup ground blanched almonds
- 1⅔ cup flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ground up almonds in a food processor
- thoroughly mix together shortening, granulated sugar, and ground almonds
- sift together salt and flour, then work it into the wet mixture
- wrap dough in plastic wrap, chill at least two-three hours
- roll pieces of dough until they are pencil-thick and 2 - 3 inches long
- form rolled dough into crescent shapes on ungreased baking sheet
- bake at 325 degrees for 14 to 16 minutes, until cookies are soft, not brown
- let cookies cool on pan
- mix together powdered sugar and cinnamon in a large dish
- while still slightly warm, carefully cover cookies with the powdered sugar/cinnamon mix
Mya Maternity says:
Those look very good.
Meyli says:
Those look delicious… damn, I’m hungry now
Michelle in MO says:
I’ve made similar ones over the years, as does our neighbor. We don’t shape them like that though, we just roll into a ball. They are delicious though and it’s impossible not to eat an entire batch in one sitting. If the neighbor brings a plate of assorted cookies, we fight over these first. 🙂
Kristi says:
Those are my favorite holiday cookies!!! Yum!
Kristin says:
They sounds yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Lanie says:
This recipe might just save me from being the person that brings slice and bake cookies to the neighborhood cookie exchange :-)!
B in Oz says:
Yummy, they look good.
Not sure I trust Mikes thumbs up anymore after his approval of Rigbys dog biscuits!
Shan says:
Oooh we used to have these at my Grandparent’s church get togethers.! Thank You!!!!
G says:
Where’s Annie? 🙁
(I’m guessing, take a nap)
janeen says:
Thanks for this! I made them for a Christmas party and people loved them. Next time i think i will just use a cookie cut out due to almost all of them breaking on me. I tried to sugar some warm and some cool to see if that was the trick. The end result was the same, the majority broke. Still yummy though!
gayatri.life.unordinary says:
so festive! lovely apron too!
Kristy H says:
My Grandma makes these cookies, and I just LOVE them! She stopped making them for awhile, but just the past few family parties she’s been bringing them, and I sneak as many as I can home with me!!
D Bach says:
This is the original Betty Crocker recipe from years and years ago. I made a few tweaks on it this year as they used to break on me too!
Mom made these every year, but she claims hers are better because she uses the Joy of Cooking recipe which uses ALL butter.
My husband likes mine better and I always use 1/2 butter, 1/2 organic shortening (new this year). I used Crisco (which I just recently found out has GMO in it) and I used to have to clear my throat each time I ate one which was highly annoying!
Also, this year I did not sift my flour as I purchase the pre-sifted kind (Gold Metal) and that was the trick! I read they sift the flour several times before shipment so there’s no need to at home. So I had no problems rolling them out, or breaking once I needed to transfer them to the waxed paper to sift powered sugar on top of each.
Wishing you a smooth road to making these AWEsome cookies! My entire family looks forward to me taking the time to not only bake them, but cut waxed paper to load them all into small Hallmark boxes to hand out as Christmas gifts. It’s ALWAYS a huge hit, guaranteed. :)~
D Bach says:
CORRECTION: I’m sorry, I “used” to use Crisco . . .