Almond crescent cookies with sprinkles – perfect Holiday cookies!
When you look at them, you might think I have gone completely crazy. Sure, it’s a holiday season and I decorated lots of cookies this month with sprinkles, but I apparently have gone completely overboard with this one:
and these ones:
The truth is almond crescent cookies are so good as they already are, they don’t even need any sprinkles, but they surely look pretty, and bright, and colorful and very merry, don’t they?
And so let this sprinkle-studded cookie be forever recorded on my blog as the most decorated cookie of all! 
This one takes the prize in the sprinkle and color department!
But I am a little worried. Are these colorful enough for you? Or, do I need to add just a bit more sprinkles? Just let me know.
Almond crescent cookies with sprinkles- Christmas cookies
Adapted from NY Times.
Prep time: 40 min
Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup blanched, sliced almonds, lightly toasted
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cold, just out of refrigerator
- 1 and 2/3 cups bleached all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar (for dusting)
- lots of sprinkles
1) Put lightly toasted almonds and sugar into food processor and process until almonds are finely ground. Cut cold butter into small pieces and add it to the food processor. Process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
2) Add flour and salt to food processor, process until dough forms, scraping the sides of the food processor bowl with spatula if necessary. And by the way, 1/2 cup white sugar is more than enough for 1 2/3 cups of flour because you will be sprinkling each cookie with powdered sugar in the end.
3) Shape dough as a disk, wrap it in a plastic wrap, put in the freezer for 30 minutes, then in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Or refrigerate it for at least 2 hours.
4) Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit.
5) Divide dough into 4 portions and work with each portion separately, keeping the rest of the dough in the refrigerator to keep it cold. Pinch a portion of the dough and roll it between the palms of your hands in a small ball, then into a small cylinder. When you roll each ball, the cold dough will become more malleable. While the cookie is still in a cylinder shape, roll it generously in sprinkles on a plate. Then, form each sprinkled cylinder into crescent shape with pointed ends.
6) Place each crescent on an ungreased parchment-paper lined cookie sheet and keep the cookie sheet with crescent shaped cookies in the refrigerator until all cookies are shaped. Also keep the dough in the refrigerator when not using it. It is important to keep cookie dough cold before baking to achieve the right cookie consistency. The cookies will require 2 cookie sheets.
7) Bake for about 12-15 minutes until cookies are set but not brown.
8) Cool cookies on a wire rack.