Marbled Crescent Cookies
The pre-Christmas season is in full swing and that can only mean one thing before amateur bakers far and wide: Christmas baking is officially open! Whether classic “Ausstecherle”, fruity filled Spitzbuben or decadent Spritzgebäck, in the cookie box is something for everyone. Today I show you a variation of vanilla crescents, which impresses not only visually, but also taste: Marbled Crescent Cookies.
The basis for the Marbled Crescent Cookies is a shortcrust pastry made of butter, sugar, ground almonds and egg yolk. From this you quickly knead a dough, which you then cut in half. Wrap one half directly in plastic wrap and let it firm up a bit in the fridge. Now knead some baking cocoa into the other half to get the great marbling effect later. Then this dough may also rest a little in the refrigerator.
After about 30 to 45 minutes of resting time, the marbled crescent cookies can be formed. To do this, divide the light dough in half and the dark dough in quarters. Put half of each dough back into the refrigerator. Roll the remaining three pieces into strands of equal length (the light dough strand will be thicker than the two dark pieces). Then place a dark strand above and below each of the light ones, and roll over it a few times bravely with your hands. Voilà: you’ve created a marbled dough just that easily!
Before the cookies can go into the oven, however, we need to shape the croissants. This works the same way as with the traditional vanilla variety. Cut pieces of the long dough noodle of equal length and roll them into small cylinders with your hands. The arms of the croissants should of course be nice and thin, so just angle your hands at the end to create the typical shape. Now form a small horseshoe and put it in the oven. When the marble crescents are done baking, be sure to let them cool on the baking sheet, because they are just too fragile when warm. In a metal tin they will then keep fresh throughout Advent, but I suspect these treats won’t survive that long in anyone’s home.
I wish you much fun baking them!
Marbled Crescent Cookies
Ingredients
- 250 g flour
- 120 g ground almonds
- 1 pinch baking powder
- 3 egg yolks
- 120 g sugar
- 200 g butter at room temperature
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon baking cocoa
Instructions
- Knead all ingredients except the cocoa into a shortcrust pastry. Divide the dough in half and knead the cocoa into one half. Wrap both doughs in plastic wrap and let rest in refrigerator for 30 to 45 minutes.
- Divide light dough in half, dark dough into quarters. Roll out pieces into strands of equal length each. Place a dark dough strand over and under each light dough strand and roll again, creating the marbling.
- Cut off equal pieces from the now marbled dough strand and shape into croissants. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C top/bottom heat for about 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet, then store them in a metal tin.
