Recipe: Pecan or Walnut Crescent Cookies (crescents, rings, balls or cigars)

PECAN OR WALNUT CRESCENT COOKIES
(Cook's Illustrated recipe)

"Superfine sugar and a combination of finely chopped and ground nuts yield tender, delicate, nutty cookies."

2 cups whole pecans or walnuts, chopped fine, divided use
2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup superfine sugar*
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar for rolling cooled cookies

Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix 1 cup chopped nuts, flour, and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

In workbowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, process remaining chopped nuts until the texture of coarse cornmeal, 10 to 15 seconds (do not overprocess); stir into flour mixture and set aside. (To finely grind chopped nuts by hand, roll them between two large sheets plastic wrap with rolling pin, applying moderate pressure, until broken down to coarse cornmeal-like texture).

In bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed or by hand, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 1 1/2 minutes with an electric mixer or 4 minutes by hand; beat in vanilla. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with rubber spatula; add flour mixture and beat at low speed until dough just begins to come together but still looks scrappy, about 15 seconds. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl again with rubber spatula; continue beating at low speed until dough is cohesive, 6 to 9 seconds longer. Do not overbeat.

Working with about one tablespoon dough at a time, roll and shape cookies into balls, crescents, rings, or cigar shapes as desired.**

Bake until tops are pale golden and bottoms are just beginning to brown, turning cookie sheets from front to back and switching from top to bottom racks halfway through baking, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets about 2 minutes; remove with metal spatula to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.***

Working with three or four cookies at a time, roll cookies in confectioners' sugar to coat them thoroughly. Gently shake off excess. (They can be stored in an airtight container up to 5 days.)

Before serving, roll cookies in confectioners' sugar a second time to ensure a thick coating, and tap off excess.

*You can buy superfine sugar in most grocery stores. You can also process regular granulated sugar to superfine consistency in about 30 seconds in the workbowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

**SHAPING COOKIES:
- BALLS: Roll the dough between your palms to form balls.
- CRESCENTS: To form crescent cookies, roll each call into a 3 1/2-inch rope of dough. Shape each rope into a half circle and place about 1 inch apart on baking sheet.
- RINGS: For rings, shape each ball into 4-inch rope, then push the ends together.
- CIGARS: To form cigar shapes, roll each ball into a 2 1/2-inch log.

***While some recipes argue in favor of coating the cookies while they're still warm from the oven, we found that this created exactly the pasty coating that we wanted to avoid. We recommend letting the cookies cool to room temperature before finishing them off with confectioners' sugar.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies
Adapted from source: Cook's Illustrated magazine