Vanillekipferl also known as Vanilla Kipferl are small crescent shaped butter cookies that are made with finely ground almonds or walnuts or hazelnuts and typically melty due to the generous coat of vanilla icing sugar.
According to Wikipedia, vanillekipferl originates from Vienna in Austria and is a specialty of the Bavarian town of Nördlingen. Traditionally, these cookies are commonly made for Christmas celebrations but they are easily available now in most European countries and can be enjoyed all year round.
Some says that these melt-in-the-mouth vanilla butter cookies can be very fragile and difficult to bake. Hmmm... I wouldn't say so if you are using a good reliable recipe like mine...
Vanillekipferl / Vanilla Kipferl / Austrian Vanilla Crescent Cookies
Why this recipe?
My son and I saw this recipe when we were browsing a very old Super Food Ideas magazine. Although there are many other Christmas cookies recipes to choose in this magazine, my son and I had this gut feeling that these cookies will turn out to exceptionally AWESOME and we were right!!!
In fact, when I looked at the recipe closely, I can see that these vanillekipferl are 95% similar to Paula Deen's Sand Tarts that I baked at here except that these vanillekipferl are so much easier to bake and handle. Plus, they taste a little extra special with a sweet vanilla floral fragrance in them.
What are the differences?
1) This recipe replaces 20g ground almond with the same amount (20g) of flour and contains 10g more icing sugar to make the cookies slightly firmer and easier to handle even before and after baking.
2) There is no egg yolk added in the sand tarts to stabilise and bind the structure of the cookies.
3) Unlike the sand tart cookie dough, the vanillekipferl dough is not too soft to handle and you don't need any extra flour to dust your hands while shaping the cookies.
4) The baking strategies of both cookies are different. The vanillekipferl are baked at 180°C for 15 minutes whereas the sand tarts are baked at 130°C for 40 minutes.
I have to admit that the slow baking technique used for baking the sand tarts is totally brilliant. The prolonged low temperature baking causes the butter in the dough to be slowly infused into the flour mixture without over-cooking the cookies and eventually creates an irresistibly delicious sandy melting texture. However, this strategy will cause the cookies to spread a lot more than the cookies that are baked at the typical 180°C and it is definitely not a good cookies baking strategy to use if you want your cookies to be firm enough to pack and give.
5) There is NO vanilla added in the sand tarts! Hmmm... In contrast, there are generous amount of vanilla added into the vanillekipferl, inside the cookies and also the icing sugar outside coating! Gosh! ... resulting these very-vanilla sweet floral smelling cookies are so fragrant!!! And I have to say this is the most desirable part of the differences.To conclude:Both recipes are brilliant!!!... but I would use this recipe if I want to bake very vanilla butter cookies that are equally yummy and easy enough to handle, pack and give.Or I would use Paula Deen's Sand Tarts recipe at here without or with added vanilla if I want my cookies to be ultimately melt-in-the-mouth but I must not mind the cookies being critically fragile to handle.For this Christmas, I'm baking some vanillekipferl to be given away as gifts and so I choose this easy recipe...
Freshly baked naked vanillekipferl with NO vanilla icing sugar coating...
Ops! I can't help to think that these plain cookies are pretty boring!
No more boring!
These cookies are all nicely assembled with vanilla icing sugar and they look so yummy!!!
Oh! I can't wait to try one of these melt-in-the-mouth vanillekipferl.
Look closely! Can see the there are many vanilla seeds in and on these cookies?
I tell you... They are very very very delicious and can be very addictive!
Happy Christmas Baking!!!
Here's a video to show you how I baked these easy lovely melty buttery Vanillekipferl and I hope that you will like this recipe and enjoy baking these for your Christmas too!
Can't believe that there is only 4 more sleeps until Christmas... My family and I will be having a short trip to Adelaide and I will take a break from blogging from now until 2018. If you wish to "come along" with us to see what we will do at Adelaide, please follow me at my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids Otherwise, I'm be back soon for more Chinese New Year baking.
If you like my recipes and want any latest updates from me, you can follow me at either my Facebook at here or here or my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids
Merry Christmas and Happy 2018!!!
Here's the recipe that is adapted from a recipe from a very old Super Food Ideas magazine.
Makes 26
For the vanilla icing sugar coating:1 vanilla bean
50g (6 tbsp) icing sugar
For the cookies:
125g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature50g (6 tbsp) icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
150g (1 cup) plain / all purpose flour
40g (6 tbsp) almond meal
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven at 180°C / 350°F. Line baking trays with baking paper.
For the vanilla icing sugar coating:
Use a knife to scrape the vanilla seeds from the bean and add the seeds into the icing sugar. Use a spoon to press the icing sugar mixture through a fine sieve to ensure that the coating is fine and powdery. Set aside.For the cookies:
Use a wooden spoon or an electric mixer with paddle attachment to beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla until fluffy and combined. Add egg yolk and beat until combined. Use a medium coarse sieve to sift flour, almond meal and salt into the butter mixture. Discard any large particles that are trapped in the sieve. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix until just combined and use your hands to knead briefly to form a soft dough.Divide tablespoonfuls of dough and roll them into balls. Shape each ball into short log with tapered ends. Then, bend the log slightly into crescent.
Arrange them on the prepared tray with about 2 cm / 1 inch apart. Bake for 15 mins or until firm and golden. Allow cookies to cool slightly for about 3 mins on the baking tray.
To assemble, coat slightly warm kipferls in the icing sugar mixture, making sure that they are generously coated with icing sugar mixture. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
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