The other day, my friend Marissa emailed me to tell me that she had conquered the World Peace Cookies recipe over the weekend, with delicious results. She also mentioned that the recipe was something of a departure for her, with her preference being for vanilla, and that’s when I noticed that there wasn’t one vanilla-centered cookie recipe posted on the East Village Kitchen blog. After I finished hanging my head in shame, I set out to right that wrong.

I didn’t have to do any digging into my recipe files to come up with just the one. Back in my first month of pastry school at the French Culinary Institute, my class was all absorbed in the business of learning tarts and cookies. In this unit, the tarts were so labor intensive, what with their finicky brisee crusts and complicated baked custard fillings and delicate meringues, that the cookies felt like an afterthought,  just another exercise in creaming butter and sugar with twelve stand mixers all whirring at the same time.

And while we baked ever so many types of cookies during that unit, these are the only ones that tickled my fancy enough for me to compulsively eat more than just one (or two, or three…)

These unassuming little cookies have a lot going for them. There’s something that reminds me of shortbread, but less heavy, with more varied texture and crumbly crunch. The toasted, ground hazelnuts lend an amazing, nutty flavor that compliments the vanilla without overwhelming it. The adorable cartoon-moon shapes look beautiful on an after-dinner plate, and they are just the right shape for an afternoon coffee snack.

The very best part of these cookies, however, is that they are rolled in vanilla sugar, one of my favorite baking discoveries thus far. Vanilla sugar is made by pulsing dried out vanilla bean pods (you know, the part so often discarded after you scrape out the seeds?) with granulated sugar in the food processor, until you’ve got a version of vanilla-infused, superfine sugar. When you bite into this cookie, the vanilla sugar clings oh so gently to your lips as the cookie goes crunch between your teeth. Licking that pure vanilla sweetness from your lips as you finish the last bite will send you straight to the moon.

Vanilla Hazelnut Moon Cookies
Adapted from The French Culinary Institute’s formula for Viennese Vanilla Crescents

makes approximately 50 cookies

Two sticks, plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter  (21 tablespoons)
2 scant cups powdered sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 cup ground, toasted hazelnuts
1 tablespoon vanilla extract, or 1/2 tablespoon vanilla paste
1 egg (optional, makes the dough easier to handle)

vanilla sugar for coating (directions below)

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla together in either the large bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, scraping down the sides as you go, until the sugar has been completely incorporated into the butter, and the butter is light and fluffy.

If you choose to use the egg, add it to the butter and sugar mixture, and continue beating until the egg is completely incorporated.

Add the ground hazelnuts and flour and mix slowly, until they are just incorporated. Do not over mix.

Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface (or use a scraper and no flour at all – ideally) and form it into a uniform rectangle. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and cut it into uniform squares of approximately 1 inch, adjusting the size accordingly for dough parts the are thicker or thin). Roll the pieces between your palms with the points horizontal with your fingers. The cup of your hand will help create the thicker part of the moons. You want to end up with a short rope of dough that is thicker in the middle and tapers out to the edges. Place the rope on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet, and shape into a moon with your fingers.

Bake the cookies at 400 degrees for approximately 10 – 12 minutes, or until the outsides begin to brown. For best results, rotate the cookie trays halfway through baking.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to sit on the baking sheet for a 5 minutes. When they are still warm but cool enough to touch without burning yourself, carefully roll them in vanilla sugar and transfer them to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container. They will keep for up to 4 days, or up to a month, double wrapped in plastic in the freezer.

Vanilla Sugar

The next time you use a vanilla bean, save the pod and allow it to air dry for a week or more, then you will have all you need to make vanilla sugar.

1 vanilla bean pod, dried completely

2 cups granulated sugar

Place dried vanilla bean pods in the bowl of a food processor with the sugar and run the processor for about a minute, stopping to pulse a couple of times. When the pod is pulverized (you will see a few larger pieces, but for the most part there should only be small fragments of the pod in the bowl).

Sift the contents of the bowl through a medium strainer. You will end up with a few bits of pod that can be discarded. If you prefer, you can return it to the bowl, process again, and sift.

Vanilla sugar should be stored in an airtight container.