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Vanillegipfeli

Vanillegipfeli, sometimes spelt Vanillekipferl, are traditional Austrian delicate, melt in the mouth, buttery, vanilla, crescent shaped cookies. I first fell in love with them when I lived in Austria in the early 1990s and have subsequently eaten them often in Switzerland and Germany as well.

Makes 12

Course afternoon tea, Morning Coffee, Snack, treat
Cuisine Austrian
Keyword Almonds, cashew nuts, Christmas cookies, Cookies, crescent shaped cookies, vanilla
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 11 minutes

Ingredients

For the cookies –

  • 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 50g caster/superfine sugar
  • ⅛ teaspoon fine salt
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
  • 50g ground almonds (or you can use ground hazelnuts or walnuts)
  • 125g plain/all-purpose flour

For the sugar coating:

  • 25g caster/superfine sugar
  • 25g icing/powdered sugar
  • 1 sachet of Vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Instructions

  1. Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.

  2. First make and bake the Vanillegipfeli: beat the butter to ensure it is soft. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla paste or extract and beat again, with an electric whisk, until the mixture is light and fluffy.

  3. Add the flour and the ground almonds. Roughly stir in with a spoon or spatula and then beat on a slow speed with your electric whisk until just mixed in.

  4. Tip out onto a large piece of cling film and push the dough together with your hands, in a rough cylindrical shape.

  5. Wrap tightly in cling film, smoothing out the shape as you do so.

  6. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.

  7. When you are ready to shape the cookies, take out of the fridge, unwrap and slice the cookie dough into 12 equal slices.

  8. Take a slice and roll it into a sausage shape around 1cm/½in thick.

  9. Now carefully create a crescent shape. Push the dough back together gently if it falls apart.

  10. Place on a lightly greased baking tray and freeze for a further 30 minutes or refrigerate for 1 hour. These cookies should not spread much but make sure there is a little space between them.

  11. When you are ready to bake them, preheat the oven to Fan Oven 160°C /180°C/350°F/Gas 4

  12. Bake in the centre of the oven for 11 minutes or until starting to very lightly brown.

  13. Next cover them in sugar: leave the cookies on the baking tray for approximately 5 minutes to both harden a little and ensure they are cool enough to handle. If you try to move them too quickly they will fall apart.

  14. Mix the caster, icing and vanilla sugars together thoroughly in a bowl. dredge each cookie in the sugar mix ensuring they are covered in the sugar.

  15. Leave to finish cooling on a baking tray.

  16. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee at any time of the day!

Recipe Notes

Equipment:

  • kitchen scales and measuring spoons
  • mixing bowl and electric whisk
  • light greased baking tray
  • small mixing bowl
  • wire rack

Where is the recipe I use from?

However, I had never made them until recently! I came across a wonderful Swiss website called Helvetic Kitchen. Set up by Andie, a Swiss-Canadian living in Switzerland, she shares a host of delicious Swiss and alpine recipes. This is her recipe, and unusually for me, I have made no changes: it is perfect as it is! See here for Andie’s Vanillegipfeli post. You should take a look at her site, it is a real gem.

Andie's Top Tips:

Andie lists a number of tips to ensure you achieve the correct texture:

  • most importantly, do not over work the dough.
  • use superfine sugar. In the UK we call this caster sugar.
  • if you can’t find vanilla sugar to use in the sugar coating, replace it with cinnamon powder
  • don’t worry if the shape is not perfect, they will still taste fabulous.