Tiny Christmas biscuits shaped like a crescent moon with lots of butter, almond, and a booster dose of vanilla. They come from Vienna and they are perfect to sweeten cold winter days. Store them in a tin box for up to a month and gift them to loved ones as a special Christmas homemade present. This is my vegan version.
Vienna is the city of Christmas with its famous markets, lights, mulled wine, and the most delicious variety of biscuits.
Vienna is the city where these moon-shaped biscuits come from.
To me Vienna means only one thing, to me Vienna reminds me of my dear friend Claudia. She is the liveliest person I know, full of wisdom, and always great fun. I met her while studying in Chicago and we have been friends ever since.
A long time ago I was lucky enough to visit her in the magic period leading up to Christmas and she and her lovely fiancé Thomas brought me around Christmas markets for the most epic mulled wine market crawl.
I have a terrible sweet tooth and I love the comfort of a hot drink so mulled wine is particularly dangerous for me. I might not remember all the details of the night, but I remember the smell of the cold air infused with cinnamon, thickened with the fried onions of hot dogs, sparkling with majestic Christmas lights.
We quickly warmed up with the wine and hopped on and off the Vienna tram that connects most of the city. The Christmas markets were filled with local delicacies, swirls of fried dough with cinnamon and vanilla sugar, massive pretzels with big chunks of white salt – my lifelong obsession, and gingerbread hearts finely decorated with uncodified German love messages.
You can also find rows and rows of tiny biscuits all with a different shape, flavour, and history.
My favourite ones are the vanillekipferl, despite not having any clue on how they are pronounced (Claudia you got to teach me!).
They are very easy to make and shaping them into a crescent moon is a mindful activity, a therapeutic pause in the busy December.
The moon-shape is not as romantic as it might seem tough, they were apparently made to celebrate a victory over Turkey in 1683.
This year I changed the traditional recipe ever so slightly so to make them vegan. The absence of eggs and the use of plant-based butter make the batter a bit crumblier, and the shape of your moon might be a little less precise than the non-vegan version. Don’t be discouraged by this though, they will be equally delicious and keep for longer – an important bonus if they are a special homemade Christmas gift.
You can taste vanilla and almonds at every bite, and I love to sprinkle them with icing sugar like it’s snow on Christmas day. These flavours bring me back to Vienna and make me feel closer to Claudia, who also happens to be born on Christmas so she is truly a remarkable person right from the start.
Merry Christmas everyone and happy birthday (soon) dear Claudia.
Vanillekipferl, Christmas almond biscuits
Course: Something SweetDifficulty: Easy20
minutes15
minutes120
minutesTiny Christmas biscuits shaped like a crescent moon with lots of butter, almond, and a booster dose of vanilla. They come from Vienna and they are perfect to sweeten cold winter days. Store them in a tin box for up to a month and gift them to loved ones as a special Christmas homemade present. This is my vegan version.
Ingredients
250 g flour
100 g ground almonds
200 g cashew butter at room temperature (margarine or any other vegan butter will also work)
65 caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (I know it’s crazy, but it’s Christmas after all)
Icing sugar to decorate
Method
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blitz for 3 minutes
- Form a rectangle with the dough and let it rest in the freezer for three hour
- Take the dough out and take 10 gr of dough, roll them to form a stick, bend the stick into a U-shape. The center should be slightly bigger than the ends of the stick.
- Bake for 15 mins at 180 C (fan oven)
- Sprinkle them with icing sugar, enjoy!
Dear Anna, only recently i found your blog post and I feel very honored to be mentioned by you, thanks so much for all the kind words, I am so happy to have you as my friend and I am looking forward to meeting you again soon! You have such a great writing style, the eye for detail and the love for food, I have the scent of Christmas now in my nose. <3 keep up the great work on the kitchen sofa!