Fruit Crescents
Best cookie I have ever tasted. My mother made these every Christmas since the 1950s.
Best cookie I have ever tasted. My mother made these every Christmas since the 1950s.
- Carbohydrate 4.97459441768448 g
- Cholesterol 34.6047533784622 mg
- Fat 9.69353331419176 g
- Fiber 0.0410666675914784 g
- Protein 0.92443771160953 g
- Saturated Fat 5.9053144779498 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (32g)
- Sodium 76.6555037619557 mg
- Sugar 4.933527750093 g
- Trans Fat 0.848433959805265 g
- Calories 109 calories
Step-by-step
- Cream together butter and cream cheese til smooth.
- Sift flour and mix with salt and heavy cream. (I know it's counterintuitive to mix the cream in before the fats, but it just doesn't work as well the other way...I've tried).
- Add the butter/ cream cheese mixture to the flour/cream mixture.
- Dough will be sticky.
- Divide in half, make balls and flatten in between 2 sheets of floured waxed paper.
- Chill the 2 pieces several hours or overnight.
- The chilling gives the pastry it's flakiness.
- Don't shortcut.
- Mix the jam with nuts and raisins.
- Roll out the flattened dough to thin.
- Cut into 2-1/2" squares and place a tsp of jam mix on each.
- Roll up from the corner, twist ends, place on a parchment covered (or silpat) baking sheet and form into a crescent.
- Brush the top with a bit of egg yolk to brown, and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar as soon as the come out of the oven.
- OMG!
Golden pastry envelopes a sweet center of jam, chopped nuts, and plump raisins beneath a snowy coat of confectioners' sugar. Working with high-fat laminated and enriched doughs requires attention to temperature. Full-fat cream cheese and butter create a tender crumb, but they demand thorough chilling to hold their shape during baking. Roll the dough between floured sheets of waxed paper to prevent sticking without incorporating excess flour, which toughens the pastry.
Visual Cues for Proper Doneness
Since pastry bakes quickly at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, visual indicators replace internal thermometers. Watch the edges of the crescents for a deep golden-brown hue. The egg yolk wash applied before baking promotes this coloration while sealing the seams. Pull the baking sheet from the oven exactly at the fifteen-minute mark when the pastry layers appear distinct and dry. Dust the pastries with powdered sugar immediately while they remain hot so the sugar adheres to the surface.
- Freeze unbaked shaped crescents on a tray for two hours before transferring them to an airtight container for up to one month.
- Bake frozen pastries directly from the freezer, adding two minutes to the total bake time.
- Reheat baked crescents in a 300-degree oven for five minutes to restore crispness.
