ALMOND CRESCENTS

GOOD ALMOND CRESCENTS HAVE A FINE, delicate crumb that is not dry or coarse. They melt in your mouth and seem light and buttery. Of course, they also must have a good nut flavor.

Confectioners' sugar is commonly used to give cookies an especially fine, melting texture. Because this sugar has been pulverized and then cut with cornstarch, it is supposed to make cookies that are tender and light. To test this theory, we made batches of crescents with both granulated and confectioners' sugar. There was no comparison. The cookies with granulated sugar were coarse and crisp. The cookies made with confectioners' sugar were light and delicate with a particularly fine texture.

In order to make the cookies especially light, we found it helpful to use a slightly lower amount of flour than is commonly called for in most almond crescent recipes. In fact, we used only as much flour as was necessary to make a dough that could be easily rolled into short ropes and then shaped into crescents.

We next focused on the nuts. Chopped nuts are too coarse for this dough. We found it necessary to grind the nuts in a food processor. Many recipes that we tried did not have nearly enough nuts. A full 1¹/₂ cups is required for good nut flavor. We also found it helpful to add a little almond extract.

Although almonds are the most traditional flavor for crescent cookies, pecans and walnuts are equally appealing.