Mom's Christmas Crescent Cookies
Learn how to make melt-in-your-mouth Italian Christmas crescent cookies! Made with simple ingredients like butter, flour, and vanilla, and dusted with sweet powdered sugar. The perfect holiday cookie that everyone will love!
Servings 16 cookies
Calories 150kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cold salted butter, or 8 Tablespoons
- 1 Tablespoon white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Mix the ingredients: In a food processor or mixing bowl with a hand-mixer, add the flour, cubed cold butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and white sugar. Pulse in a food processor until the dough forms or use a hand-mixer until the dough forms.
- Form into logs: then quickly separate the dough into two parts and form 6x2 inch logs. Then slice them into one inch pieces.
- Shape the crescents: Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Then use the cut pieces of dough to form each cookie. Roll the dough first between your palms into a 3-inch piece then use your fingers to shape it into a crescent. Repeat process until all the cookies are made and arrange cookies on sheet pan.
- Chill cookies: Then chill the cookies for 10-15 minutes. Don't skip this step, or the cookies will melt when baked. :)
- Bake: Then bake the chilled cookies in the oven for 9 minutes, then turn the pan and bake for an additional 9 minutes. This will help evenly brown them.
- Dust with powdered sugar: Remove the baked cookies from the oven and let them completely cool. Then, generously dust the cookies with powdered sugar before enjoying them!
Notes
Work quickly and don't handle the dough too much - to keep the butter from getting too warm, I recommend working as quickly as possible with your hands. If you work too much with the dough it will start to crack and become too soft. If the cookies get too soft, they will melt in the oven - which we don't want. :)
Don't skip chilling the cookies! - This is a must for these cookies. The butter that's in the cookie dough needs to stay cold in order for the cookie to hold its shape and not melt. So, don't skip chilling the cookies before baking!
Chill the dough if it gets too difficult to work with - if you find that the cookies keep cracking while trying to form them or you feel like the dough is too warm to work with, chill the dough in the fridge for 5-8 minutes then try again.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 150kcal | Carbohydrates: 10.6g | Protein: 0.4g | Fat: 11.6g | Cholesterol: 30.6mg | Sugar: 4.6g