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!
One reader, Fiona, commented: “These are excellent! I followed the recipe exactly. I made them twice, and the second time I toasted the almonds like you described in the options. They were also very, very good! Great recipe and it is replacing my previous one. โ โ โ โ โ “
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 300ยฐF (149ยฐC) oven for about 8 minutes), before you grind them, for that added toasty flavor. Don’t skip the almond extract, thoughโyou 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.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2/3 cup (133g) granulated sugar
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 and 1/3 cups (292g) all-purpose flourย (spooned & leveled)
- 1 Tablespoon (8g) cornstarch
- 3/4 cup (75g) very finely chopped almonds (use a food processor)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Coating
- 3/4 cup (90g) confectioners’ sugar
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. (Hereโs a helpful tutorial if you need guidance onย how to cream butter and sugar.) 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 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). 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, 14โ16 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.ย
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) |ย Baking Sheets |ย 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 (if desired): Spread raw sliced almonds in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes at 300ยฐF (149ยฐC). Let them cool before chopping/grinding.ย
- 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
The dough took a long time to come together, 26-minutes. I added water a few times, guess I should have done that after 5-minutes.
Hi Sally and Team. There was what looked like a bar cookie, possibly a shortbread with white vanilla icing sprinked with peppermint. I cannot find the recipe and have looked though all the Palooza pictures. Can you send to me please> The comments said this was the #1 pick of your staff!
Maureen
Hi Maureen! Could you be thinking of Peppermint Bark Fudge, Peppermint Bark Cookies or Peppermint Mocha Cookies? All are favorites. We don’t have a recipe on this website exactly as you’re describing.
These came out amazing. I followed the recipe exactly, refrigerating leftover cookies after rolling in powdered sugar. My friends and family adore the light almond flavor sweetness. Iโll definitely be making these again, not to mention annually for Eid celebration. Thank you, Sally!
I love this recipe a lot! I made it wirh GF flour for our restaurant and turned perfect
These cookies are amazing! I did reduce the quantity of flour as the metric amount listed here is different from what I calculated. I used 280 grams of AP flour. Everything else stayed the same. The cookies are delectable!
Sally calculates a cup of flour as 125g; your cup is 120g. Itโs not a significant difference, but I tend to go with what the recipeโs author lists. I agree with you, the cookies are delectable!
These are delicious, my family loved them! Honestly, I find them better without the powdered sugar coating as the almond flavour really shines through. So glad I found this recipe so I could pack these in my Christmas cookie boxes as gifts too!
So fun! My family loved themโค Thank you for the recipe!
Can you start with unsliced raw almonds?
Absolutely!
These are excellent! I followed the recipe exactly. I made them twice and the second time I toasted the almonds like you described in the options. They were also very very good! Great recipe and is replacing my previous one. Thanks Sally and merry Christmas!
These look so lovely! Do you have any suggestions for someone who does not have access to almond extract? Is there any substitute? Or is there maybe a vanilla crescent recipe I could follow (I do have vanilla extract)? Thank you!
Hi Leila, you can leave it out. Feel free to replace with more vanilla extract.
I would love to try this recipe ! However we have a nut allergy in the family . Would it be possible to leave out the almonds ? I have extract that is nut free .
Hi Katie, you can make these “snowball cookies” and shape into crescent shapes per this recipe. Replace one of the teaspoons of vanilla with your nut free almond extract.
I have made about ten Christmas cookie recipes so far (most from Sally’s Baking Recipes), and my Mom says these are her favorites! They are crispy and crumbly but not hard and dry. The almond extract adds a nice, almost fruity flavor, and they are perfectly sweet with the dusting of powdered sugar.
Hi Sally! I see you recommend shaping and refrigeration to make ahead of time, but would the dough still be okay if refrigerated it as a dough ball and shaped later in the week? Iโve never made this types of cookie before and donโt want to ruin them!
Hi Christine, the dough will be very firm, crumbly, and extremely difficult to shape. I strongly encourage you to shape the dough right after making it.
These were always a favourite of mine growing up, though I was never brave enough to attempt. As usual, Sally makes it easy and approachable, Iโve never had a recipe of hers fail me yet. I only had whole raw almonds so I blanched and peeled them and then ground them in a food processor and it worked out great. Also used a plant based butter with no issue. I might reduce the almond extract by a bit next time as I found the flavour to be quite strong but otherwise wouldnโt change a thing!
Hi Sally,
The texture and taste of these biscuits turned out amazingly well! Sadly, my biscuits spread quite a bit. From reading your notes, my butter mayโve been too soft. I weighed all the ingredients (except used the ts measurements for almond/vanilla) as I believe US and Australian cup measurements differ. If there is any other reason why the biscuits mayโve spread, please let me know!
Thanks for all your wonderful recipes. Iโm a big fan!
Hi Jaime, it’s likely the butter. Room temperature butter is still cool to the touch. It’s not overly soft, nor should it look or feel greasy. I actually have a helpful page all about this if you want to read more! I’m glad you enjoy how the cookies taste. If you try them again, don’t let the butter sit out for quite as long, and an extra Tablespoon of flour can certainly help too.
Iโm making this recipe now and I notice that the recipe doesnโt mention toasting the almonds. This is mentioned only in the notes so I missed this step. Will this affect the cookies greatly? Perhaps adding โtoasted chopped almondsโ in the ingredient list would help others not make the same mistake I just made?
Hi Rayna, toasting is an optional way to add more flavor if you’d like to take that extra step. The pictured cookies do not use toasted almonds; the recipe is written without toasted almonds which is how I make them.
I love all your recipes. You are my go to for any recipe Iโm looking for. The jumbo sparkly blueberry muffins are one of my favorites.
Sally, I have never had one of your recipes fail me. My other half’s favorite Christmas cookies are these. Of course it is a recipe that his deceased wife never wrote down. His daughter and granddaughter try every year and nope, it ain’t it (won’t eat them). I think I am going to try it. My favorite is snowballs and a good old sugar cookie. My foster mom’s was the best. BTW Your ginger molasses cookies are stupendous.
I used brandy instead of almond extract. They are amazing.
Is it possible to use gluten-free flour in place of AP flour? Do you trust GF flours that promise measure-for-measure substitution?
Hi MJ, I don’t have enough experience with GF flours to provide enough feedback on them. You can certainly try these with a GF flour blend though. Let me know how they turn out.
Can I use almond paste and how much
Hi Denise, not with this recipe. I would look for another almond cookie recipe that utilizes almond paste.
these look delicious! Could I bake these ahead of time, freeze them and then coat them in confectioners’ sugar? or do you recommend coating first and then freezing? thanks!
Hi Jeanne! They freeze and thaw well with the sugar coating.
How many does this recipe yield?
36 cookies. Let us know if you give them a try!
I am really enjoying your daily cookie recipes, it takes the thinking out of what to bake next, when baking do you recommend fan forced or just regular bake setting on oven please, there is generally a difference in the temperatures? Thankyou
Hi Karen, if you’re using a convection oven, you typically have to reduce the oven temperature down. For a 350ยฐF (177ยฐC) oven, you’ll want to reduce to 325ยฐF (163ยฐC) and also slightly reduce the bake time. I test, bake, and write my published recipes using the conventional settings on my oven.
Hi Sally! Love this yearโs Palooza so far, I canโt wait to see whatโs next! I have whole almonds, Iโm assuming itโs an acceptable substitute? Thanks for your help and the delicious recipes too!
Hi Donna, yes, of course! You’ll want to either chop them extremely fine (like the photo of the almonds in the food processor above) or use the food processor. It’s ok if they have the skin on them.