Cookies galore - mocca beans with white chocolate drizzle & vanilla crescents

I guess I'll better take the opportunity and make a timely post on Christmas cookies while you're still in the mood - although I find that it's pretty sad that I only make them around this time of the year, why do I never, ever bake any cookies in summer?
My parents are visiting at the moment and I got my Dad to bake his speciality for us this year - vanilla crescents. They're pretty well-known around the world I guess, and I decided to have them again, despite my vow to only bake new delicacies this year - Christmas just isn't Christmas without them.
My father has been twisting and turning the recipe for a god decade now, so you can be sure that these are the best Vanillekipferl you can possibly make!
Another novelty on our cookie plate this year were mocca beans drizzled with white chocolate. The recipe is taken from a very old special issue of a German women's magazine (Brigitte) - it's battered, torn and full of cookie crumbs in between the pages... we just loved these cookies, quick and easy to make, they bake in just 10 minutes and will please coffee lovers and chocoholics alike.
The recipes have a major flaw: they don't tell you what the yield is going to be. Apologies, but it was impossible to count them, partly because a hungry mob was waiting to eat them almost straight from the oven, but the real difficulty was to determine how much my father had devoured while he was shaping the tiny crescents... I think I even heard him murmur a passage out of Cinderella: "The good ones go into the pot, the bad ones go into your crop."
And before I forget - here's a picture of our nativity scene this year. My daughter and my Mum created this masterpiece. There wasn't enough time to make all the figures needed, so the sheep are filling in for Mary and Joseph - I hope this is not going to cause as much controversy as Turner prize entries usually do...

Dad's vanilla crescents

280 g flour
210 g butter
100 finely ground almonds
70 g sugar
1 pinch salt

For dusting:
250 g icing sugar
10 g vanilla sugar

Knead all the ingredients for the dough together smoothly, then rest in the fridge for at least half an hour. You can make this the day before if you cover it tightly with cling film.
Take tiny portions (about a heaped tsp full) of dough one at a time and roll them into skinny "sausages", then form crescents.
Lay on a non-stick baking tray and bake in the preheated oven (180 C fan) until they're golden brown, this should take around 10 minutes.
While still warm, roll in the sugar mixture and leave to cool.

Mocca beans with white chocolate drizzle

100 g flour
100 g corn starch
100 g icing sugar
50 g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg yolk
175 g butter (at room temperature)
2 tbsp instant coffee (dissolved in 1 tbsp cognac)

To decorate:
100 white chocolate
1 tbsp cream

Combine all the dry ingredients for the dough in a mixing bowl. Knead in the egg yolk and butter, then add the coffee-cognac mixture. Work into a smooth dough.
Using a mocca spoon (half the size of a tsp) take some of the dough to form tiny coffee beans, using a knife for the split on the back. Make sure your keep them really small, as they will rise quite a bit.
In the meantime, preheat your oven to 170 C (fan), then put in the baking tray with the mocca beans and bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool.
When ready to decorate, put the white chocolate and cream in a plastic sandwich/freezer bag, tie up securely and place in hot water until melted. The bag will later serve as your piping equipment. Shake thoroughly. Using scissors, cut off a tiny bit of a corner, to release a tiny stream of your chocolate mix. Decorate the beans with the chocolate and leave to cool and set.

Comments

[spots]

Hi, nice to see so many entries from u aft your finger got cut... am glad! These cookies look very interesting! I shall have to try out your dad's vanilla crescents one day! Thanks!

[Petra]

Hallo Johanna,

genau dasselbe Rezept für den Vanillekipferl-Teig verwende ich auch - ich stimme dir zu, es sind die besten! :-)

Liebe Grüße aus dem verschneiten Bayerischen Wald

[pinar]

Hi,
I wish you a happy new year and want to ask something, the cocoa beans look very delicious and I'll try them as soon as I get home but I couldn't see any sugar in the recipie might have you forgotten or is that the way it is. really nice site I'll keep on reading :)) pinar from Turkey

[johanna]

hi pinar - thanks for noticing! it was really an oversight... i guess i was trying to make them healthier than they actually are! have corrected my mistake and hope you will like them as much as we do!

[Lisa]

I just discovered this blog (thru clotilde's) and wow! will visit more! the vanilla crescents are also part of the family tradition in my inlaws. My step mom-in-law is German. Last year, I finally got to make her promise to give me the recipe (family guarded secret more than 200 years old hehehe) but I have yet to get it - we are all still on vacation till end of this week. I will give your dad's recipe a try soon ;-) winter is for baking, non?

[Samantha Pereira]

Thanks Johanna for these recipes, can't wait to try them! By the way do you think that substituting arrowroot or even plain flour would work instead of corn starch for the mocca beans one? Happy Advent wishes to you all, love Samxxx

[johanna]

Hi sam, 

I am pretty sure arrowroot would work too but I havent tried it before. Yes plain flour should work also, it might make it cheesier but thats just a guess. Try it and let me know please!

Jx

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