Slow Down and Cook

• Oven to: 37o° f.
• These cookies benefit from having the dough rest in the fridge overnight.  The sugar to flour ration seems crazy; it is not; the cookies are rolled in a sugar mixture after baking for sweetness.
• 3oo g flour
• 200 g butter (at room temp.)
• 40 g Sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg yoke
• 100 g.  ground nuts (almond flour or walnut-meal)
• 1 C. Powdered sugar mixed with about ten grams of Vanilla sugar (you will roll the cookies in this after baking)

1. Combine, in a mixer: butter and sugar, mix until fluffy, at medium-high speed; reduce to medium low: add a pinch of salt and egg yoke.
2. Add the flour and nuts, a reasonable portion at a time, alternating between them. At this point, you may want to increase the speed of the mixer to work against the thickening of the dough. Combine completely.
3. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl to a piece of plastic wrap; form into a disc, about an inch thick; wrap well in plastic wrap, and refrigerate, at least two hours, and up to overnight.
4. Remove from fridge and unwrap: divide into four (4) equal sections; Each section should be about an inch thick;  working with one section at a time; cut each quarter into sections about an inch thick; take each these sections, and cut into half-inch pieces. Taking each piece between your palms, roll your hands together to create a log like a tootsie roll;  bend that into a crescent shape
5. Have ready: a platter covered with the Powdered Sugar mixture
6. Place cookies on a lined cookie sheet; bake for 10 minutes, rotating half way through, two sheets at a time.
7. Remove from oven, let cool very briefly; while still hot – or it won’t take, transfer cookies, one at a time, to powdered sugar mixture and roll to coat all sides, liberally.
8. Remove to a plate to cool in a single layer.
9. Store in a dark cool place; they improve daily for several days; no one knows how long they keep (they never last long enough).

Happy Holidays, Vesele Vanoce.