With their delicate almond flavor, crumbly shortbread texture, and sweet powdered sugar coating, almond crescent cookies are a traditional favorite around the holidays, but can (and should!) be enjoyed year round. This is a 1-bowl cookie dough, and the chill time is relatively quick!
If these snowy moon-shaped cookies look familiar to you, it’s because they are such a classic style of cookie, you have no doubt encountered them on more than one occasion!
Buttery, nutty, and coated in confectioners’ sugar, almond crescent cookies are a staple in Italian baking. Made with a few simple ingredients, they’re elegant in their simplicity. While there are countless ways to make them, this recipe reflects how I tested and prepared them. It may not be the most traditional approach, but they check all the crescent cookie boxes!
And we all love them.
Almond Crescent Cookies Recipe Snapshot
- Texture: The texture is similar to snowball cookies, which also do not include any egg or leavening agents. When you bite into one of these cookies, the powdery sweet coating melts in your mouth and gives way to the crumbly, sandy cookie inside.
- Flavor: We’re using vanilla and almond extracts to flavor these buttery cookies.
- Ease: This is a simple, 1-bowl recipe that comes together easily with an electric mixer. Shaping the cookies into crescents is the only slightly tricky step.
- Time: The shaped cookie dough crescents need to chill for 30 minutes before baking (that’s relatively quick for cookies!), and they need to cool completely before you can coat them in the powdered sugar.
Perfect with a steamy mug of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, these are a classic “tea cookie.”
Key Ingredients You Need & Why:
- Butter: Creamed butter forms the base of these shortbread-style cookies.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens these cookies. I find the cookies too dry when using confectioners’ sugar in the dough; in order to keep the cookies from over-spreading, you need enough flour. Confectioners’ sugar in the dough threw off the dry-to-wet-ingredients ratio.
- Vanilla & Almond Extracts: For flavor, especially if using homemade vanilla extract! Don’t skip the almond extract, it’s a flavorful must for these almond crescent cookies, even if you decide to make them with another type of nut.
- Flour: This provides the structure of the cookie.
- Cornstarch: A touch of cornstarch ensures these crumbly cookies don’t become too hard. It’s not a typical ingredient in traditional crescent cookies, but we found it dramatically improves the cookies’ texture.
- Ground Almonds: Start with raw sliced almonds and grind them in a food processor. The ground almonds will be finely chopped, but still gritty.
- Salt: To balance out the sweet.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: Their snowy exterior comes from rolling them in powdered sugar after they cool. The cookies themselves are not overly sweet, so it adds a nice touch of sweetness as well.
This is an egg-free baking recipe.
Can I Use Almond Flour?
I strongly recommend grinding up almonds yourself, so you get a coarse and gritty texture. (See photo below.) This way you will really be able to taste the almond. In a pinch, you can use store-bought coarse almond meal, but do not use fine almond flour. Your cookie dough won’t come together very well and the cookies, following the recipe below, will taste dry.
If you don’t have a food processor, chop sliced almonds as finely as possible with a sharp knife.
Expect a Crumbly Dough
The cookie dough comes together in just 1 bowl. It will be super thick, to the point where you don’t think it will come together! Turn your mixer up and watch the buttery goodness form before your eyes.
The dough will come together, I promise:
Use a Tablespoon measuring spoon to portion out the cookie dough, then use your fingers to shape the cookies into crescent shapes. They don’t have to be perfect (and they won’t be!), so just do your best here.
Chill the shaped crescent cookies in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day, to help set their shape, and then bake.
Let the cookies cool completely, then roll each crescent cookie generously in confectioners’ sugar. If you roll them while they’re still warm, the powdered sugar will just melt into the cookies, so make sure they are completely cool before coating them.
3 Success Tips
- Use proper room-temperature butter. Like when making Christmas sugar cookies or butter cookies, if your butter is too soft when you start, it won’t form a sturdy base for your cookie dough. The cookies will over-spread and taste greasy & dense.
- Cool completely before coating. If you roll them in the powdered sugar while they’re still warm, the sugar will melt into the cookies, and you’ll need a 2nd coating after the cookies cool. The cookies are buttery enough that the sugar will still stick, even after cooling.
- And again, do not use almond flour. Some recipes for almond crescent cookies use almond flour, but the recipe below is best with coarsely ground almonds.
Almond Crescent Cookie Variations
Simple and classic, but if you want to play around with this recipe, here are a few ideas you could try:
- Citrus Zest: Add a couple Tablespoons (yes, Tablespoons!) of fresh lemon or orange zest to the dough for a bright, citrusy twist.
- Use a Different Nut: Instead of almonds, try ground pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, or walnuts. You could also take the extra step to toast the nuts (just scatter them on a baking sheet and pop them in a 300°F (149°C) oven for about 8 minutes), before you grind them, for that added toasty flavor. Don’t skip the almond extract, though—you still need that for flavor, even if you are using a different type of nut in the dough.
- Chocolate: Drizzle the cooled cookies with melted chocolate, or dip one end of the crescent in melted chocolate and sprinkle some sliced almonds on top before the chocolate sets. Yum!
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
Almond Crescent Cookies
Prep Time: 1 hour (includes chilling)
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Yield: 36 cookies
Category: Cookies
Method: Baking
Cuisine: Italian
Description
With their delicate almond flavor, crumbly shortbread texture, and sweet powdered sugar coating, almond crescent cookies are a traditional favorite around the holidays, but can (and should!) be enjoyed year round. These are a wonderful make-ahead option, as the shaped cookie dough can be refrigerated for up to 1 day.
Instructions
- Line a large baking sheet or a couple large plates (whatever your refrigerator has room for) with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat on medium-high speed until combined. Add the flour, cornstarch, almonds, and salt. Beat on low speed until mostly combined, then turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and beat until the dough fully comes together. The dough will be super thick, to the point where you don’t think it will combine. Just keep mixing until it clumps together. If absolutely needed, beat in a couple drops of water to get it to come together.
- Scoop 1 Tablespoon (20g) of cookie dough and shape into a crescent moon. Place on the lined baking sheet/plate, and repeat with remaining cookie dough. (The shaped cookies can be close together in this step, as you’ll separate them on lined baking sheets to bake.) Refrigerate the shaped cookies for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day. If refrigerating for longer than a couple of hours, cover the dough.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Arrange the chilled cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies until golden brown on the bottom edges and just barely browned on top, 14–16 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Coating: Gently roll each crescent cookie in the confectioners’ sugar to coat completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked and coated cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Unbaked, shaped cookie dough crescents freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough crescents for an extra minute, no need to thaw. See this post on how to freeze cookie dough for more information and a video tutorial.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowl | Cooling Rack or this Gold Cooling Rack
- Almond to Use: I use raw sliced almonds, usually sold in the baking aisle with the other nuts. Do not use salted almonds.
- To Toast the Almonds: Spread raw sliced almonds in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes at 300°F (149°C). Let them cool before chopping/grinding.
- Other Nuts: You can also use finely chopped/ground pistachios, hazelnuts, pecans, or walnuts. If using another nut, I still recommend adding almond extract. Feel free to reduce the amount of almond extract down to 1/2 teaspoon.
- Can I Use Almond Flour? I strongly recommend grinding up almonds yourself, so you get a coarse and gritty texture. This way you will really be able to taste the almond. In a pinch, you can use store-bought coarse almond meal, but do not use fine almond flour. Your cookie dough won’t come together very well and the cookies, following the recipe otherwise, will taste dry.
- If You Don’t Have a Food Processor: If you don’t have a food processor, chop sliced almonds as finely as possible with a sharp knife.
