Vienna Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, butter, nuts, 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, salt, and vanilla. Hand mix until thoroughly blended. Shape dough into a ball. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, place sugar in a bowl or small container. With sharp chef's knife, split vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape out seeds, and mix them into the sugar. Cut pod into 2 inch pieces and mix into sugar.
• Remove dough from refrigerator and form into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball into a small roll, 3 inches long. Place rolls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet, and bend each one to make a crescent shape.
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until set but not brown.
• Let stand 1 minute, then remove from cookie sheets. Place hot cookies on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Sprinkle with prepared sugar mixture. Turn gently to coat on both sides. Cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature. Just before serving, coat with more vanilla flavored sugar.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325°F. Spray 15x10x1-inch pan with cooking spray.
• In food processor or blender, place 1/2 cup cookie mix and the almonds; process until almonds are finely chopped.
• In large bowl, stir remaining cookie mix, the butter, egg and almond mixture until dough forms. Press dough in pan to cover bottom.
• Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 3 minutes. Loosen edges from side of pan; cut cookie into 4 (7 1/2x5-inch) rectangles. Cool 30 minutes. With spatula, transfer pieces to a cutting board.
• Meanwhile, in food processor or blender, process jam until smooth. In small bowl, reserve 2 teaspoons of processed jam; set aside. Spread remaining jam on top side of 2 rectangles. Place a remaining rectangle, bottom side up, on top of each jam-covered rectangle.
• Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the powdered sugar over each rectangle. Add remaining powdered sugar and the water to reserved jam; stir until smooth. Place in small food-storage plastic bag; seal bag. Cut small tip from one corner of bag; squeeze glaze on top of dusted rectangles in diagonal crisscross pattern. Let stand 30 minutes to set.
• Cut each rectangle in half to make 4 (7 1/2x2 1/2-inch) rectangles. Cut each rectangle into seven 2 1/2x1-inch bars. Store covered at room temperature.

Steps:

• Finely chop the 1/2 cup almonds. Sieve egg yolks. Cream butter with egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice and salt until very light and fluffy. Stir in chopped almonds, cherries and pineapple. Add flour, mixing to make a soft dough. Chill dough until easy to handle.
• Form the dough into 1 inch balls; place on lightly greased cooky sheet and flatten to 1/2 inch. Lightly press an almond half into each. Bake on a high rack in the oven at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Yield about 3 dozen cookies.
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• Typically these cookies were topped with an almond half. Heating the whole almonds first makes them easier to split. Place the nuts in a shallow pan in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes. As soon as they are cool enough to handle split them into halves with the sharp tip of a small kitchen knife.
• If nuts are not for you, a dusting of confections sugar, or a sliver of cherry also could grace the cookies top. Sometimes we did all 3 just to make an assortment.

Steps:

• Cream butter and add sugar. Add 1/2 cup of flour mixing after each addition. Add remaining ingredients. Shape into a disk and then chill for 30 minutes. You can also put the dough in the freezer at this point.
• Begin to roll the dough the dough so that it is about 1/4-inch thick or a little more. Cut with cookie cutters. Place dough on parchment paper or a greased cookie sheet. I prefer using parchment paper. It's just easier.
• Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes or until the edges are a bit brown. You may need to lower your oven to 325 degrees F.
• You can also freeze or chill the dough in a log shape rather than a disk. If you do this, simply cut small rounds about 1/4 inch thick and place these rounds on the lined cookie sheet. These bake for 15 minutes. (This works well, if you want to transport dough to a friend's house and have kids form the cookies.)
• Once the cookies come out of the oven, either cool them on the cookie sheet or move the parchment paper to a cookie rack. As the cookies cool, but before they're fully cooled, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.
• Arrange on a plate and don't blink because they'll disappear before you open your eyes. Eat.
• That's the classic Brown family cookie. Without it Christmas simply isn't Christmas. Sometimes I bring a batch from my Chicago home and that simply doesn't work. My sister and mother are upset that the house doesn't smell like Christmas...no cookie smell in the air. I'm often required to make many batches...and the cookies are eaten at all times
• and for all meals.
• These were the cookies we left for Santa...He regularly gobbled them up, leaving only a few crumbs on the plate and a note that said, "These are excellent cookies, the best I've had." In retrospect, the writing looked an awful lot like my father's... If they're good enough for Santa, I think they're good enough for anyone.

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Gradually add flour. Add yeast mixture and blend well. Refrigerate dough until well chilled.
• Spread sugar out on a large piece of waxed paper. Roll walnut-sized balls of dough into the sugar, pressing flat until dough is thin, about the size of a doughnut. Keep flipping dough and pressing into sugar during this stage.
• Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until very lightly browned around the edges. Cool on racks.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Put the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk for about 5 mins until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat again until fully incorporated.
• Sift in the flour, cornflour and baking powder, and fold into the mixture using a spatula until combined (the dough should have a tacky consistency). Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped nozzle. If all the mixture doesn't fit, do it in 2 batches.
• Pipe swirly circles 5cm diameter onto 2 baking sheets making sure there are 3cm spaces between each swirl.
• Bake for 10-12 mins, swapping the trays over halfway through the cooking time so the biscuits are evenly baked, until pale golden and cooked through. Leave to cool on the baking sheets for a few mins, then transfer to wire racks.
• While the biscuits cool, make the filling. Put the softened butter in a large mixing bowl and add the icing sugar. Stir together initially with a wooden spoon then switch to electric beaters or a whisk to get the buttercream fluffy and smooth. Add the vanilla extract and beat once more to combine. Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag and snip off the end.
• Turn the biscuits over so their flat side is facing up then pipe buttercream over half of the biscuits and spread a little jam on the rest. Sandwich a jam covered biscuit together with a buttercream one and repeat until all the biscuits are used up.