Almond Crescents
- 23 cup blanched, sliced almonds
- 13 cup sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 23 cups bleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup superfine sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- In a food processor, process the almonds and sugar until the almonds are ground very finely.
- Cut the butter into a few pieces and add it with the motor running.
- Process until smooth and creamy.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour and sprinkle the salt on top.
- Pulse it just until the flour is incorporated.
- Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, press it into a thick disk and wrap it tightly.
- Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about 2 hours.
- For the topping, stir together the sugar and cinnamon until uniform in color.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Divide the dough into 8 portions.
- Work with 1 section at a time, keeping the remainder of the dough refrigerated.
- Knead the dough between floured hands until malleable.
- Pinch off a portion of the dough and roll it into a 1-inch-round ball.
- On a lightly floured counter, roll each ball into a cylinder with tapered ends, about 3 inches long by 1/2 inch thick.
- Form each cylinder into a crescent shape and place on an ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart.
- The cookies will require two cookie sheets, one for the middle rack in the oven and one for the lower one.
- Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until set but not brown.
- For even baking, rotate the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking period.
- Cool the cookies on the sheets for 10 minutes.
- While they are still warm, use a small angled metal spatula or pancake turner to lift them from the sheets and dip them, one at a time, in the cinnamon sugar, turning gently to coat all over.
- Finish cooling the cookies on wire racks.
- To store, place the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month or freeze for as many as several months.
blanched, sugar, unsalted butter, flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon
Taken from cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/3743 (may not work)