Walnut Gipferl Crescent Cookies Recipe

Image is for illustrative purposes only.

Gipferl are the little crescent-shaped shortbread cookies of the Austrian and Central European pastry tradition. This version is made with only four things: cake flour, caster sugar, unsalted butter and finely ground walnuts. There is no egg and no raising agent, so the dough stays short and sandy and the baked cookie melts on the tongue rather than snapping.

The flavour is gentle and buttery with the warm, slightly bitter note of walnut behind it. They are good on a petit four plate, alongside coffee, or piled into a box as a gift, and because they keep well in an airtight tin they are a useful thing to bake ahead when you have decorated cakes to finish.

Ingredients

The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units', you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
Note: The Recipe Calculator Tool is available to subscribers.

Weight Per Unit: 750 Number of Units: 1 Unit Size: tray of about 30 small crescent cookies
	WEIGHT (grams)	ALTERNATIVE METRIC	INGREDIENT	IMAGE	CONDITION
A	300	10.6 ounces	Cake Flour Cake flour is a finely milled white flour made from soft wheat. It has very low protein content, between 8% and 10%, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. The higher protein content of other flours would make the cakes tough. Highly sifted cake flours may require different volume amounts in recipes than all-purpose flour. Using the scoop and level method, well-sifted flour usually produces 125 g per cup. However, most American recipes are written with 140 g of flour per cup, so weighing and experimentation can be helpful in baking unfamiliar recipes. Small weight differences can greatly affect the texture. American Cake flour is bleached; in countries where bleached flour is prohibited, plain flour can be treated in a domestic microwave to improve the texture of the end product.		sifted
B	100	3.5 ounces	Sugar Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
C	250	8.8 ounces	Butter Butter is a solid dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk, to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk. It is generally used as a spread on plain or toasted bread products and a condiment on cooked vegetables, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water. unsalted		room temperature, diced
D	100	3.5 ounces	Walnut Pieces Walnut pieces are shelled walnut kernels broken into rough chunks. They are sold ready-chopped and are cheaper than whole halves, which makes them ideal for folding through cake batters where the nuts are not on show.		finely ground
	750

Recipe Calculator Tool

Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.

STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
The 'Custom Weight Per Unit' is already loaded with the weight per unit for this recipe but can be changed if required. If all you wish to do is change the number of units (or servings), just leave the current weight per unit.

STEP 2. Enter your Custom Number of Units
This is the number of units (or servings) you want this recipe to yield.

STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.

Custom Weight Per Unit (grams)	Custom Number of Units
		Calculate

Method

STEP	ACTION	DETAIL	CONDITION
1	Prepare	Grind D (walnut pieces) in a food processor with a spoonful of the weighed B (caster sugar) to stop them turning oily.	Fine and sandy, not a paste
2	Cream	Beat C and B (butter and caster sugar) together in a bowl or mixer with the paddle.	Pale and soft, but do not whip in a lot of air
3	Mix	Add the ground D (walnuts) and mix through.	Evenly spread through the butter
4	Fold	Sift A (cake flour) over the mixture and work it in gently by hand or on low speed.	Just brought together into a soft dough; stop as soon as no dry flour shows
5	Rest	Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap it and rest it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.	Firm enough to roll without sticking, but not hard
6	Pre-heat	Pre-heat the oven to 170°C (340°F) and line a flat baking tray with baking paper.
7	Shape	Divide the dough into pieces of about 25 g, roll each into a short log with tapered ends, then curve it into a crescent and set it on the tray, leaving a little space between them.	Even sizes so they bake at the same rate
8	Bake	Bake at 170°C (340°F) for about 12–15 minutes.	Set, still pale, with only the edges and tips lightly golden
9	Cool	Leave the cookies on the tray for 10 minutes before lifting them onto a rack.	They are very fragile while hot and firm up as they cool

Important Notes

The full batch weighs about 750 g of dough and gives roughly 30 crescents at 25 g each, which fills one home baking tray. They are best baked pale; over-baking dries out the walnut flavour. Once completely cold, store them in an airtight tin, where they keep for up to two weeks and stay short and sandy. In the traditional style these crescents are often rolled or dusted in icing sugar once cool, which is optional and not part of the base recipe.

Tools & Arrangements

Food processor or nut grinder, electric mixer with paddle or a bowl and wooden spoon, sieve, digital scales, plastic wrap, flat baking tray, baking paper, cooling rack.