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Almond Crescent Cookies are a melt-in-your-mouth, classic cookie with nutty, buttery flavor. It’s a quick and easy Christmas cookie perfectly suited for sharing with family and friends.
This post is sponsored by Challenge Butter, but all opinions are my own.
- Nutty and sweet. Almond crescent cookies are a shortbread-like cookie commonly enjoyed during the holidays with tea or coffee. These traditional Austrian Christmas cookies are similar to snowballs and Mexican wedding cookies. They’re crumbly, nutty, and coated in sweet powdered sugar.
- A cookie for almond lovers. There are several variations of this recipe out there. Some use chopped almonds, some use almond extract, and some use almond flour. Mine uses a little bit of everything. I think it gives the almond cookie the best flavor and texture.
- Great for a holiday party. Almond crescents are quick and easy to make, and perfect for your Christmas cookie tray!
What You’ll Need
This tasty almond cookie recipe turns basic ingredients into an almond-forward delight. Scroll down to the recipe card for specific quantities and the full set of directions.
- Butter – Always important for great flavor. I used my favorite Challenge Butter. Challenge Butter is a high quality butter that goes from farm to fridge in just two days, ensuring that it’s nice and fresh. It has no added hormones, artificial flavors, or fillings, so you can feel good about feeding it to your family. If you haven’t tried it before, you definitely need to. The flavor is wonderful and perfect for using in your holiday cookies.
- Sugar
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour – Measure with a food scale or spoon this into your measuring cup bit by bit – never scoop up flour directly, or you’ll over-measure it.
- Almond flour – This adds bulk to the cookies without drying them out. I find that these almond cookies are more tender when made with almond flour than when made without.
- Almonds – Finely chopped.
- Powdered sugar – For coating the cookies.
Let’s take a quick look at how to make these crescent cookies step-by-step. For more details, don’t forget to scroll down to the recipe card.
Make the Dough
- Preheat the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Cream the butter and sugar. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until it’s light in color and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Add both the vanilla and almond extracts and mix until well combined.
- Stir in the dry ingredients. Add the all-purpose flour and almond flour to the mixture and stir until combined. Take care not to over-mix the dough.
- Add the almonds. Pour in the chopped almonds and fold them in by hand. The dough will be a little crumbly at this point, and that’s what you want to see.
Assemble the Cookies
- Form the cookies. Take a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) and roll it into a small ball. Shape it into a crescent with your fingers and place it onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat this process with all the remaining dough. You should end up with 25-30 crescents.
- Bake the cookies. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until they begin to turn golden brown. I wind up baking them for 11 minutes in my oven.
- Cool the cookies. Allow the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Roll the cookies in powdered sugar. Roll the almond crescents in powdered sugar and set them aside on a wire wrack. You can roll the cookies while they’re still slightly warm, but the powdered sugar may melt. If this happens, just roll them again.
Troubleshooting Crumbly Cookie Dough
If your cookie dough seems too crumbly, try forming balls with your hands. If it’ll hold together, then it’s probably fine. If your dough is so crumbly that it won’t come together, you may have added too much flour. Try adding a teaspoon or two of milk until the dough will come together and form balls. Just don’t add too much or your cookies will spread and lose their shape.
Tips & Recipe Variations
- Loosely pack the flour. In order not to add too much flour to these almond crescent cookies, fill your measuring cup by the spoonful and level it off at the top to prevent overpacking.
- Use room temperature ingredients. Make sure you bring the ingredients to room temperature before starting to make the dough. If the butter is too cold, you’ll wind up with lumpy dough that isn’t well-combined.
- Add chocolate. Feel free to dip your cookies in melted chocolate, or drizzle it over the tops.
- Add cinnamon to the powdered sugar. A touch of ground cinnamon in the powdered sugar for these almond crescents (and/or the cookie dough) tastes phenomenal.
- Use amaretto. You could also try substituting amaretto liqueur for the almond extract.
Proper Storage
- Room temperature. Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
- Freezer. You can freeze these crescent cookies for up to 1 month. Freeze them in airtight freezer-safe bags or in airtight freezer-safe containers.
Recipe
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 30
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Almond crescent cookies are a melt-in-your-mouth, sweet almond explosion of flavor. This is a fast and easy Christmas cookie perfectly suited for sharing with family and friends.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted Challenge Butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup (138g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour (measured accurately)
- 1 cup (128g) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (65g) finely chopped almonds, optional
- 1/2 cup (58g) powdered sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.
- Add the vanilla and almond extract and mix until well combined.
- Add the flour and almond flour and mix until combined. Don’t overmix.
- Add the almonds and fold together until combined, but don’t over-mix. The dough will be a little crumbly.
- Take heaping tablespoons (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) one at a time and roll into a small ball, then shape into a crescent. Place onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until just before they begin to turn golden. I bake mine for 11 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool and then roll them in the powdered sugar. You can roll them in the powdered sugar when still warm, but it will melt a bit so you’ll probably need to do it again when they’ve cooled.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Notes
- To store. Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
- To freeze. You can freeze these crescent cookies for up to 1 month. Freeze them in airtight freezer-safe bags or in airtight freezer-safe containers.
Where do you find almond flour
They typically have it grocery stores right by the all purpose flour.
Instead of crescents, can I leave them shaped like balls or does that affect baking time?
You could, but yes that would probably affect baking time. You could also try logs or something.
Can you use ap flour?
All purpose flour has different properties than almond flour, so you would probably need to make other adjustments if you used all all-purpose flour.
Hi, I was wondering how you rolled you cookies into such perfect crescents? They are beautiful!
You can kind of see me do it in the video, but I really just use my fingers to shape them.
Eggs are mentioned in the “room temperature” section. I think it’s meant as a general rule in baking unless otherwise specified. If you remove the word “the” from the sentence, it’s clearer.
Ah yes, thank you. I removed the mention of eggs so that it isn’t confusing.
The recipie mentions eggs but I don’t see them in the ingredient list. Please advise
Where does it mention eggs? I don’t see that anywhere.
I love this recipe
So glad to hear that!
Why can’t you use almond paste?I had Mexican wedding cakes made with almond paste but didn’t get the recipe.It was very tender.Would it work with this recipe?
I imagine you could use almond paste. I just did not test this recipe with it to be able to say how to adjust it.
If you used almond paste, how much would you use? Would you use it instead of almond extract?