Akin to the famed Mexican wedding cookies, Greek kourambiethes, and Southern pecan puffs, these crumbly shortbread crescents, made gluten-free with a variety of specialty flours, are showered with confectioners’ sugar while still hot from the oven.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for finishing cookies
- 14 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 6 oz . walnuts or almonds, finely ground in food processor
- 1 ¼ cups plus 2 tbsp. tapioca flour
- ½ cup chickpea flour
- ⅓ cup chestnut flour
- ¼ cup white rice flour
- ½ tsp. fine salt
Instructions:
- Heat oven to 325°. In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat together sugar, butter, and vanilla on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add walnuts, tapioca, chickpea, chestnut, and rice flours and salt, and mix on low speed until just combined. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and form into a rough cylinder; divide cylinder into 30 equal pieces, about 1 oz. each. Working with one piece at a time, roll dough between palms of hands to form a link sausage shape, about 2″ long. Taper ends, and bend slightly to form a crescent; repeat with remaining dough pieces and transfer to parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spaced 2″ apart.
- Bake, rotating baking sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through cooking, until firm and lightly browned at edges, 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and sift over confectioners’ sugar until all cookies are well-coated. Let cool completely before serving.
