Vegan Vanillekipferl Crescent Cookies (2024)

Vanillekipferl are an absolute must-have cookie in Austria and Germany. They are delicate, crescent shaped and sugar dusted cookies. Ground almonds or nuts give them a wonderful light texture and a heavenly taste.

Austria is quite big on Christmas baking. There are so many different types of Christmas cookies! From double layered jam filled biscuits to walnut cookies, cinnamon stars and rum truffles… There are too many to name them all.

Baking cookies as a social activity is always part of the fun. Often we’d bake the whole afternoon, mixing and rolling out dough, cutting, shaping and baking biscuits - and then dusting them generously in icing sugar.

It’s traditional to share tins full of different Christmas cookies with friends and family. But there’s one type of cookie that’s never missing - and that’s the iconic Vanillekipferl.

What is a Kipferl?

Kipferl is the Austrian name for baked goods in the shape of a crescent moon. The other part making up Vanillekipferl is, of course, vanilla.

Traditionally the baked moon shaped cookies are tossed in powdered vanilla sugar. Haven’t got any vanilla sugar? Don’t worry. We’ll show you how you can make Vanillekipferl without it, or how to make your own at home!

Vanillekipferl are most popular in the festive season. The coating of icing sugar makes people think of snow lightly covering the fields and hills in the winter.

But these cookies aren’t just for Christmas, they’re so delicious you can enjoy them at any time of the year!

Ingredient tips

So how do you make vegan vanillekipferl? The traditional dough for these cookies is very simple and easy to veganise, by using a plant based butter instead of dairy butter.

• Ground almonds - we make our own by grinding organic almonds in our food processor.You can use whole almonds with the skin, or peeled blanched nuts.
• Flour- just plain or all purpose flour.
• Vegan Butter - you’ll want a firm block style vegan butter such as Naturli, Flora Plant Butter, Miyokos or Earth Balance.
• Sugar - you can use caster or granulated sugar.
• And icing sugar or powdered sugar gives the cookies their melt in the mouth coating!

In the US not all sugars are vegan due to bone char being used in the processing. Check the packaging for a vegan label, or look for organic sugar or sugar derived from beet.

Some icing and powdered sugars may also contain egg white, so check before buying. This brand is certified vegan.

You can easily and cheaply make your own powdered/icing sugar by grinding granulated or caster sugar in your food processor until fine.

Where’s the vanilla, you might ask? Instead of adding vanilla extract to the dough, the vanilla flavour comes from the sugar coating.

In Austria, vanilla sugar is available in shops. It is mixed with the icing sugar before coating the baked Vanillekipferl.It's also really easy to make your own.

These cookies are just as tasty if you leave out vanilla completely. I actually know a lot of Austrians who do this!

Make your own vanilla sugar

Although you might have trouble finding vanilla sugar in other countries, you can easily make your own!

What you’ll need is some regular granulated or caster sugar and a whole vanilla pod or bean.

Simply put the vanilla pod in a jar large enough, fill it up with sugar, and leave it closed for a few days. The sugar takes on the aroma of the vanilla.

The longer you leave it for, the stronger the vanilla will be.

For an even more intense vanilla sugar, you can scrape out the soft inside of the vanilla bean and mix it into the sugar.

Use a tablespoon of homemade vanilla sugar for every sachet a recipe calls for. Add it to or sprinkle on cookies, cakes, pies and sweet tarts to give them a touch of vanilla flavour!

You can also grind up homemade vanilla sugar into fine powder and use it as a dusting, which is perfect for this Vanillekipferl recipe.

Step by step

Enough chit chat! Here’s a handy step by step overview on how to make these delicious cookies.

For more helpful information check out our top tips below and the detailed instructions in the recipe card.

Step 1 - Mix and knead the flour, ground almonds, sugar and vegan butter into a uniform dough.

Step 2 - Shape the dough into firm logs about 3cm / 1inch wide and refrigerate them for an hour.

Step 3 - Cut the logs into slices 1 cm thick. By hand, roll each piece into a rope with slightly pointed ends.

Step 4 - Gently shape it into a crescent, and place it on a lined baking sheet. Repeat the process for the other pieces of dough.

Step 5 - In a preheated oven, bake the Kipferl at 180°C (350°F) for 10-12 minutes.

Step 6 - Let the cookies cool down and firm up for 5-10 minutes, then carefully toss and dip them in icing sugar for a generous sweet coat.

See Also

Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce - The Kitchen McCabeBest Stuffed Dates (6 Ways!) – NutriciouslyHow to Make a Sourdough StarterSourdough Onion Rings | Fried Sourdough Onion Rings | Eat the Love

Top tips for making these cookies

Still unsure about how to make our recipe for Vanillekipferl? With these tips, you’ll be able to make them with great success every time!

• Weighing for best results - Exact measurements are critical in baking. Just a bit toomuch fat can make the cookies difficult to shape, flat and fragile. Using scales is much more precise than using volumes.
• Chilling the dough before shaping - This makes the dough easier to shape and reduces spreading out during baking. If you have more cookies shaped than you can bake at a time, chill them again until you bake them.
• Getting the baking time right - Your oven and the size and thickness of your Vanillekipferl will have an effect. Look for the telltale sign - the tips of the Kipferl starting to brown - to know when they are ready to come out! A preheated oven is essential, too.
• Let them cool down just enough before tossing them in icing sugar. They should have firmed up enough so you can handle them without breaking, but still warm enough so that the icing sugar will stick to them. Five to ten minutes is just right.

Variations

You can make these cookies with other ground nuts instead of almonds. Walnuts are also traditionally used.

We don’t recommend using a soft dairy free spread, or coconut oil as a substitute for the vegan butter, as this effects the resulting texture.

Dip the ends in chocolate for extra indulgence, or as an alternative to dipping in icing sugar. Simply melt some dark vegan chocolate, and coat each end of the cookie with chocolate. Place on baking parchment to set.

We hope you have fun baking these vegan Christmas cookies! Come and discover our other tasty vegan recipes from Austria.

And be sure to check out these other festive recipes that go great with these vegan Vanillekipferl!

Vegan Rum Truffles

No bake Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate Salami

📖 Recipe