Crescents with Jam
These crescents are so delicate and delicious. All the recipes I’ve seen before recommended letting the dough rest in the fridge for a couple of hours after mixing. What they fail to mention is that such dough would be really hard to roll out because it becomes very crumbly.
For 16 crescents:
1 egg
1 cup flour (7 oz)
2-3 tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp sour cream
4 oz butter
3 tbsp any jam, marmalade or fruit preserves
1 tbsp powdered sugar (if desired)
These crescents are so delicate and delicious. All the recipes I’ve seen before recommended letting the dough rest in the fridge for a couple of hours after mixing. What they fail to mention is that such dough would be really hard to roll out because it becomes very crumbly.
I’ll share with you a much faster and simpler way of making these cookies.
The easiest way to make the dough is in a stand-up mixer with a bowl. Any food processor can be used instead. If you have a regular hand-held mixer, you can use it too, only in this case cut the butter into small pieces or grate it.
Place the cut-up cold butter into a bowl.
Break an egg into the bowl, add the sugar and salt.
Add the sour cream.
Measure the flour.
Add the flour to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients.
Turn the mixer on and start mixing the dough.
Mix for half a minute, then turn the mixer off and use a spoon to scrape all the lumps from the sides of the bowl towards its center.
Turn the mixer back on and continue to mix the dough for another 1-1.5 minutes.
The dough should be very delicate and smooth. It’s easily shaped into a ball and doesn’t stick to the hands.
Preheat the oven to 360F.
Line the cookie sheet with baking paper.
Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and roll each part into a ball.
Cover your working surface with another sheet of the baking paper.
Place one dough ball on the paper and roll it out into a thin round patty about 11”-12” in diameter.
Slice the dough round into 4 quarters.
Then cut each quarter in half.
You’ll have 8 equal triangles.
Place 1 teaspoon of the filling onto the wide base of each dough triangle.
Carefully fold the dough covering the filling.
Continue rolling towards the center till you have a dough roll.
Repeat for the remaining cookies.
Place the cookie sheet into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the baking sheet.
Arrange on a serving dish and dust with the powdered sugar. To do that, put the powdered sugar into any fine sieve and move the sieve over the cookies lightly tapping on it.
Don’t worry if some filling leaks out during baking. Carefully cut off the leaked-out filling from the cookies with a knife so that all your crescents look perfect.
The whole preparation process should take about 35 minutes, including the baking time. The only drawback is that the cookies made in this way may lose a bit of their shape during baking.
If you have a bit more time on your hands, you can put the cookie sheet with the ready-to-be-baked crescents into the fridge for 20 minutes or more. After such refrigeration they will keep their shape in the oven and the filling won’t leak out. Keep in mind though that the oven needs to be turned on 15 minutes prior to baking, and increase the baking time to 25 minutes.
