Cardamom-Walnut Crescents

Taken from this recipe, in terms of ingredients and method, this was not so different from the perennial favorite Mexican Wedding cookies. But the texture was quite different once baked, because the fat (butter, in this case) wasn't creamed evenly throughout the batter. I had joked to my mother that it looked like I was making a batch of mini-croissants; it turns out I wasn't too far off, because even though the dough came together, the food processor maintained little granules of the cold butter so that they baked into very lightweight cookies that crumbled in your mouth.

For the dough:

• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup walnuts halves
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, chilled and cut in to 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

For the vanilla sugar:

• 1/3 cup sugar
  
• 1/4 vanilla bean

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Combine all dough ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until the dough resembles coarse meal. Then process continuously until it begins to gather together.
2. Roll 2 teaspoons (or a little over half a tablespoon) dough at a time into half moon shapes. Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake until firm to touch, about 18 to 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine the vanilla sugar ingredients in a food processor until the vanilla bean is pulverized.
4. When cookies are done, let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack. Sift the vanilla sugar over them immediately. Continue cooling for 15 minutes. The cookies may be stored in an airtight container up to 5 days.

If you are lazy like me, you can just substitute powdered sugar for the vanilla sugar. Be aware, though, that this cuts down on the sweetness. This was perfectly fine for me, though. If you want to be even more super-lazy, forget about the crescent shapes and just form little half-domes like the mexican wedding cookies.

I also liked to up the cardamom and orange zest amounts, but you can certainly adjust to your taste. To help with the spreading, you can chill the cookies after they're formed on the baking sheet in the fridge for a half hour before putting in the oven.