The following recipe came from the original edition of ”The New York Times Cook Book” and was published on Dec. 18, 1955, when Nika Hazelton, the food writer, said it was the greatest cookie recipe ever devised.
Ingredients
- ¼ vanilla bean
- 1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
- 1 cup walnut meats
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
- Nutritional Information
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
498 calories; 24 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 63 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 33 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 72 milligrams cholesterol; 18 milligrams sodium
Note: Nutrient information is not available for all ingredients. Amount is based on available data.
72 crescents
Preparation
- Chop vanilla bean. Pound it in a mortar or pulverize it in an electric blender with about one tablespoon of the confectioner’s sugar. Mix with the remaining confectioners’ sugar. Cover and let stand, preferably overnight. Reserve while cookies are baked.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut walnuts with a sharp knife into very small pieces. Pound the pieces to a paste, using mortar and pestle.
- With a wooden spoon or the fingers, mix walnuts, butter, granulated sugar and flour to a smooth dough. Shape dough, about a teaspoon at a time, into small crescents about one and a half inches in diameter.
- Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet until lightly browned, or 15 to 18 minutes. Cool one minute. While still warm, roll cookies in prepared vanilla sugar.
- Do not be tempted to cut the vanilla bean in a food processor; it doesn’t work. But the machine works well with the walnuts.
Dining and Cooking