"Vanillekipferl" or "Vaníliás kifli" is an Austrian, Hungarian, German, Czech and Slovak small, crescent shaped biscuit. It is usually made with ground almonds or hazelnuts but in Hungary we usually use walnuts. The typical flavor of the crescents come from the heavy vanilla sugar dusting.
These biscuits are very popular in Hungary during Christmas time, so I prepare them every year. We just love them!
I modified the original recipe quite a bit. As I don't use gluten and white sugar, I had to make bigger changes. I also added a hint of cinnamon to the dough (it tastes nice and it's great in balancing blood sugar levels).
Just try them and enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 150 g finely ground almonds (without skin)
- 50 g finely ground walnuts
- 30 g finely ground hazelnuts
- 3-4 tablespoons arrow-root or chestnut flour
- 140 g butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 1-2 tablespoon honey
- salt
- ground vanilla
- cinnamon
For the optional! sugar coating (after baking): 1 tablespoon ground erythritol and vanilla
Preparation:
- Cut the butter into small pieces
- Mix all the ingredients (except the sugar coating) and form a dough. Use more ground nuts or chestnut flour if the dough is too sticky. Cover with wrap foil and cool in the fridge for a few hours
- Preheat the oven to 150 C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Shape crescents from the dough and place them on the baking sheet
- Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges are light brown
- Let cool almost completely and very carefully roll in the vanilla-sugar mixture (optional)
- Keep the crescents in an air-tight container