Hazelnut Crescent Cookies

Hazelnut Crescent Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups toasted hazelnuts, finely chopped*
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup superfine sugar**
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325° F.
Mix 1 cup nuts, flour, and salt. Set aside.
Place remaining cup of nuts in a food processor and process about 10 to 15 seconds until the nuts resemble coarse cornmeal. Stir into flour mixture.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture and beat until dough is cohesive, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Take one tablespoon of dough at a time and roll into a ball. Cookies can be baked as balls or can be rolled between palms and shaped into crescents, rings, or small bars.
Place cookies on baking sheet. Bake about 15 minutes, or until tops of cookies are pale golden and bottoms are just begining to brown.
Cool on baking sheets about 2 mintues. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling to room temperature.
When cookies have cooled, roll each in confectioners’ sugar to coat completely. Shake off excess. sugar.
Cookies can be rolled again in confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Yield: about 48 cookies

Notes:

*Feel free to substitute pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc.
**Don’t have superfine sugar? Process regular granulated sugar in a food processor about 30 seconds.