Brazil Nut Crescents

Submitted by Chef #436194

"Gourmet magazine, October 1958"

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 4
• Yields: 24-36 cookies

ingredients

• 1 1⁄4 cups sifted flour
• 1⁄4 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1 cup blanched and finely ground brazil nut
• 1⁄2 cup butter

directions

1. Combine and sift the flour and sugar.
2. Add the almonds.
3. Cream the butter and add the dry ingredients.
4. knead the dough until it's mixed.
5. make a 2 inch roll. make 1/2 inch slices. make crescent shapes.
6. bake on a buttered sheet for 10 minutes at 325.

Reviews

[ifineedit]

I'm not crazy about Brazil Nuts, so I had to find a recipe to use up the Brazil Nuts I had accumulated after consuming many cans of mixed nuts. This recipe fit the bill.<br/><br/>These cookies melt in your mouth. But the baker needs to be aware of a few things. <br/>1.) Brazil nuts do not form a powder when they are ground finely. Instead, they have a gritty peanut butter texture because they contain quite a bit of natural oil. But when the flour is mixed in (I did it with a food processor), the flour absorbs the oil. <br/>2.) If you roll a 2" log, like the directions instruct, you will end up with an 8" log. If you slice it at each 1/2", you'll only end up with 16 large cookies, not the 24-36 that the recipe says. And it is tough to slice a pasty-textured log in 1/2" segments. So, instead, I sliced it into 1" segments, and then cut each of those into quarters before forming crescents. It was also easier to form crescents from those pie-shaped pieces. So, I ended up with 32 cookies. <br/>3.) Rather than place all the uncooked crescents on a "buttered sheet", I placed half of them on parchment paper on a cookie pan, so I could compare the result. There were no differences between the finished (baked) products. <br/>4.) The cookies took 12 minutes to bake, but still did not look golden brown after this 12 minutes. The hot cookies themselves were still soft to the touch, and didn't harden up at all until they were cooled. Then, they had a uniform, cookie consistency (neither cakey, nor crunchy, nor crispy). They DO taste of the Brazil Nut, but the taste and texture are milder in cookie-form than in the original nut. Therefore, I found the cookies to be quite edible.