Comfort food - Mom's Crescent Cookies

momofmany

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My mom made the best Crescent Cookies in the world. While she was generally a very non-creative cook (OK, her food was downright boring most of the time), there were a couple of things she made that were just pure comfort food, the cookies being one of them. When mom passed away in early 2000, I searched her kitchen for her Crescent cookie recipe and never found it. I haven't had those cookies in probably 15 years.

I've been on a mission to downsize things in my life of late, and one of the things I'm doing is to go thru all my "stuff" to organize it. I have a large collection of cookbooks and folders stuffed with recipes. Guess what I found a couple days ago? Not just her cookie recipe, but the entire xeroxed copy of her cookbook. I have no idea how old the cookbook is, but I suspect it's from the early 1950's, and uses ingredients that I've never heard of. Ever hear of "chocolate shot" or "ammonia powder"? Even funnier, cookie is actually spelled "cooky" throughout the book. It lists butter as an ingredient, then tells you to cream the shortening with the sugar in the instructions. And yes, I found recipes that called for lard. What a find!

Monday night I asked DH if he remembered my mom's Crescent cookies. His entire face lit up and he just said "they were to die for". Then I told him that I found the recipe. He started to drool. DH told me that I made those cookies about 20 years ago, but I don't recall ever having that recipe, let alone making them. Who knows, we're both getting old and our memories are whacky at times.

So yesterday, on what would have been my dad's 83rd birthday, I made them. DH just got home from work when I was icing them and grabbed one while they were still very warm. He took a bite, closed his eyes and sighed in delight. OMG I forgot how good they are!!!

And I will share this recipe in case you are interested. I'm doing this from memory.

1/2 pound butter (softened)
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups sifted flour (measure after sifting)
1 cup crushed pecans
Confectioners sugar (for icing - recipe didn't give me a quantity and I didn't measure)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter until smooth. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the flour and pecans and mix again. Cover and put in refrigerator for an hour until firm. Pinch off small amounts and roll them in your hands to make a cylinder shape (about 2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick). Fold slightly into a crescent shape and put on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. While still warm, roll each cooky in confectioners sugar to form a glaze over the entire cooky. Let cool on wire rack then sprinkle a little more confectioners sugar on top of them.

Thanks mom (and dad)!
 

Winchester

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What a wonderful recipe! Your mother sounds like she was such a wonderful woman. And how lucky you are to have found her cookbook!

I have my MIL's cookbook on my hard drive of my computer. And it's on a CD, too, because I'm so scared of losing all those wonderful recipes of hers.

There's a very old recipe for sugar cookies from my grandmother that calls for lard. I don't know if it's her actual recipe that she used, but I can tell you that she made the absolute best sugar cookies on the planet. Heavens, they were good cookies. And I've never, ever been able to find a recipe that matches those cookies she made.  I've been tempted to try the recipe out, just to see if it's the one that she always used. She had an old black Composition notebook with her recipes copied inside, but nobody ever found the notebook after she passed away. Our local supermarket sells leaf lard, which is a very pure lard.

And there's a recipe from King Arthur (it's in the Cookie Companion) that calls for baker's ammonia; I wonder if that's the same thing as your ammonia powder. The recipe is for a type of sugar cookie and, according to King Arthur, you can buy it at any pharmacy. It's also available via mail order from King Arthur.

Is chocolate "shot" the chocolate sprinkles that you put on top of cookies? I find things like this to be very intriguing.

Would you mind posting your Crescent Cookies recipe in the Recipe Exchange? That way, it won't get lost in the Lounge posts. Good cookie recipes are hard to find! Thank you!
 

AbbysMom

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Those sound delicious! :yummy: I'm so glad you were able to find the recipe. :)
 

snake_lady

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!
And I will share this recipe in case you are interested. I'm doing this from memory.
1/2 pound butter (softened)
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups sifted flour (measure after sifting)
1 cup crushed pecans
Confectioners sugar (for icing - recipe didn't give me a quantity and I didn't measure)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter until smooth. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the flour and pecans and mix again. Cover and put in refrigerator for an hour until firm. Pinch off small amounts and roll them in your hands to make a cylinder shape (about 2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick). Fold slightly into a crescent shape and put on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. While still warm, roll each cooky in confectioners sugar to form a glaze over the entire cooky. Let cool on wire rack then sprinkle a little more confectioners sugar on top of them.
Thanks mom (and dad)!
Hmmm.

That sounds yummy.

Question: is confectioners sugar the same as Icing sugar?
 

aimerlee

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Hmmm.

That sounds yummy.

Question: is confectioners sugar the same as Icing sugar?
Yes it is!
I make a recipe like this many times. Some people call them Mexican wedding cookies. They're sooo good and easy to make! They also taste great with a little bit of almond or vanilla extract added.
 
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momofmany

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And there's a recipe from King Arthur (it's in the Cookie Companion) that calls for baker's ammonia; I wonder if that's the same thing as your ammonia powder. The recipe is for a type of sugar cookie and, according to King Arthur, you can buy it at any pharmacy. It's also available via mail order from King Arthur.

Is chocolate "shot" the chocolate sprinkles that you put on top of cookies? I find things like this to be very intriguing.
I called my chef friend the other night and asked her about these 2 ingredients. She thinks that ammonia powder is simply baking powder. She thought that chocolate shot was a chocolate liquor, but the way that it was used in the recipe leads me to believe that you are correct - they are the chocolate sprinkles you put on top of the cookie. The alternative to chocolate shot in one of the recipes was colored course sugar.

The cookies are nearly gone. I'm doing my best to control myself from eating all of them right away. I normally don't bake cookies (I'm more of a savory dish type of person), so I don't want them to disappear too quickly.
 
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