Vanillekipferl
Kipferl are the most fragile biscuits we know: heavy on butter, heavy on ground almonds and with no raising agent at all, so they never rise — they settle into sand. That is why the dough has to stay cold and the baked crescents come off the tray only while still warm. And the one rule that matters: roll them in sugar straight from the oven. On cold biscuits the sugar simply falls off.
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 12 min
- Rest
- 1 h
- Total
- 1 h 52 min
- Servings
- 24
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 230 kcal
Ingredients
For the dough
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What to use instead
Hazelnuts can replace the almonds at the same weight — warmer in flavour and a shade darker.
For rolling
Makes: About 72 crescents
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Make the dough
Cream the soft butter with the sugar for 3 minutes and beat in the egg. Add the ground almonds, flour and salt and bring it together quickly. Do not keep working it: the warmth of your hands melts the butter and the biscuits lose their shortness.
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Step 2: Chill it
Divide the dough into four, roll each piece into a log, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. Work with one log at a time and leave the rest in the cold.
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Step 3: Mix the sugar
Stir the icing sugar and vanilla sugar together in a wide bowl and stand it next to the oven. You get about half a minute to roll each batch, so everything has to be ready.
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Step 4: Shape the crescents
Heat the oven to 175 °C. Cut 10 g pieces from the cold log, roll each into a 7 cm rope with tapered ends and bend it into a horseshoe. Set them on lined trays 2 cm apart.
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Step 5: Bake
Bake 8–12 minutes — the crescents should stay almost white, with only the tips and the base turning gold. Overbaked kipferl taste bitter and go dry.
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Step 6: Roll them hot
Leave them on the tray for exactly 2 minutes, long enough to firm up but not to cool, then lift a few at a time into the sugar and turn them until coated. Move them to a rack.
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Step 7: Let them settle
Cool completely on the rack. Fresh from the oven they seem impossibly crumbly, but after an hour they are exactly right: short and sandy.
Tips & variations
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Tip
The usual defeat is crescents breaking as you move them. Use a narrow palette knife, and never sooner than 2 minutes out of the oven.
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Swap
Hazelnuts can replace the almonds at the same weight — warmer in flavour and a shade darker.
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Variation
Roll half the batch in icing sugar mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon and you have a second biscuit from one dough.
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Storage
In a tight tin they keep three weeks, which is exactly why they are baked in early December. Layer them with baking paper.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 24 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 230 kcal | 5,520 kcal |
| Protein | 4 g | 96 g |
| Fat | 14 g | 336 g |
| Carbohydrates | 24 g | 576 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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