Cardamom Crescents

This is one of the recipes I had planned to make for the holidays but I ran out of time! Despite a knee injury I was in that mood where the only thing that will help is to MAKE something, so I sucked it up and made these cookies Wednesday night. I thought they were tasty! Next time around I am not sure I'd bother with the crescent shape, however on a cookie tray it would add some variety. This is a similar recipe to "Mexican Wedding Cookies" or "Russian Teacakes" that seem to show up at tea parties and the holidays, probably because of the final stages of rolling a baked cookie in powdered sugar, which looks like snow.

I made the recipe as I found it although originally I dumped 2 cups of confectioners' sugar in with the butter. I cleaned the recipe up to add clarity to that confusion. I also had vanilla powder on hand, a gift from a co-worker who recently traveled to India, so I added 1/2 tsp of that. It looked almost like finely ground vanilla beans, and was more the color of the spices.

Cardamom Crescents
from Sweet Paul Magazine

You will need:

2 1⁄2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3⁄4  teaspoon cardamom, ground
3⁄4  teaspoon cinnamon, ground 

1/2 tsp vanilla powder (optional; I added this because I had it!)
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1  teaspoon vanilla extract
2  cups walnuts, very finely chopped (in food processor) 

For after baking:

2 cups confectioners’ sugar 

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Whisk together the first 4 ingredients.
3. Beat butter and 1 cup confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add vanilla extract and stir to combine.
5. Add the flour mixture and mix, just until combined.
6. Add walnuts and stir until thoroughly incorporated.
7. Using 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie, shape into crescents and place on baking sheets about 2” apart.
8. Bake, in batches if needed, until lightly golden. This will take about 15 minutes.
9. Let cool for 5–10 minutes.
10. Place the remaining 2 cups confectioners’ sugar in a wide, shallow bowl.
11. When the crescents are cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in confectioners’ sugar, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
12. Once cool, roll in confectioners’ sugar again.