Bake Club - Cardamom Crescents

Note: I know I've been posting diet blogs this week, but we had our monthly Bake Club on Monday night, so I wanted to share the recipe we prepared.  The plus side - they weren't even that good, so I still have ~4 sitting on my counter from the 6 that I brought home.   

That should speaks volumes.  However - I DO like this cookie at Christmas.  It just feels weird to eat them in February.

Recipe from Epicurious.com, But I rewrote the direction section to better explain the steps.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided
1 cup pecans
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

Prep: 

• Arrange racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; 
• preheat to 350°F. 
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Prepare 3 Bowls of Different Ingredients:

• Mix Dry Ingredients: Whisk first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. 
• Prepare Nut Mixture: Combine 1/2 cup sugar and pecans in a food processor; pulse until coarse meal forms. 
• Cream Butter: Using an electric mixer, beat butter and vanilla in a medium bowl until creamy, 2–3 minutes. 

Form Dough in the Mixer bowl:

• Add nut mixture; beat to blend. 
• Add dry ingredients; blend well (dough will be moist but still crumbly). 
• Transfer to a work surface; knead to form a ball, about 4 turns.

Shape the Cookies:

• Measure 1 rounded tablespoon of dough; form into a ball, then roll into a 1 1/2"-long log. 
• Gently bend into a crescent shape, pinching ends to taper (cookies may crack slightly). 
• Repeat with remaining dough, spacing about 1" apart on prepared sheets.

Baking Tips:

• Rotating sheets halfway through baking, until bottoms are golden, 
• Average bake time is 12–15 minutes, but watch them closely through the stove window.

Meanwhile:

• Sift remaining 1 cup powdered sugar into a shallow wide bowl. 
• Working in batches of about 8 cookies each, roll warm cookies gently in powdered sugar to coat.
• If you put hot cookies in the powdered sugar, it will melt.  
• Transfer to a wire rack to let cool. 
• Roll or dust cooled cookies with powdered sugar. 

Making these for an event?  

They can be made 5 days ahead, just store them 

in an airtight container at room temperature.