Almond Crescent Christmas Cookies

The proper way to measure flour using measuring cups is to aerate it first. This is done either by sifting flour or aerating it by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup, then carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than what the recipe calls for. Do aerate the flour, or you will end up with dry dough! 

Put almonds and sugar into the food processor and process until almonds are finely ground. Cut cold butter into small pieces and add to the food processor. Process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add flour and salt to the food processor, process until dough forms, scraping the sides of the food processor bowl with a spatula if necessary. And by the way, 1/2 cup white sugar is more than enough for 1 2/3 cups of flour because you will be sprinkling each cookie with powdered sugar in the end.

Shape dough as a disk, wrap it in a plastic wrap, put in the freezer for 30 minutes, then in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Or refrigerate it for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit.

Divide dough into 4 portions and work with each portion separately, keeping the rest of the dough in the refrigerator to keep it cold. Pinch a portion of the dough and roll it between the palms of your hands in a small ball, then into a small cylinder. When you roll each ball, the cold dough will become more malleable. Form each cylinder into a crescent shape with pointed ends.

Place each crescent on an ungreased cookie sheet and keep the cookie sheet with crescent-shaped cookies in the refrigerator until all cookies are shaped. Also, keep the dough in the refrigerator when not using it. It is important to keep cookie dough cold before baking to achieve the right cookie consistency. The cookies will require 2 cookie sheets.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes until cookies are set but not brown.

Cool cookies on a wire rack. Using sifter, sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar.