Step 1

Cut the cold butter into small pieces.

Step 2

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour, butter, ground almonds, sugar, vanilla extract, and egg yolk with your clean hands or a pastry cutter. Use your hands towards the end and press the dough together until it forms a ball. Don't overknead the dough as this can warm up the butter too much and make it overly crumbly.

Step 3

Wrap the dough in cling film (or put it into a plastic bag) and place it in the fridge for at least one hour (longer is fine, too).

Step 4

Once the hour is up, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and put parchment paper on your baking sheet.

Step 5

Place a small amount of flour on the counter and cut the dough into four pieces of equal size. Keep 1/4 of the dough out, and place the rest back into the fridge. You should only take out a small amount of dough at a time and let the rest stay cold.

Step 6

Briefly knead the dough, then roll it out with your hands until it becomes a long "sausage" with a thickness of approximately 1/2 inch. If the dough falls apart, briefly knead it again and roll it out again.

Step 7

Cut the dough into roughly 3-inch long pieces and shape them so they look like crescents. Make sure to slightly pinch the ends for a nicer look. Place the cookies on a baking sheet. Repeat step 5 and 6 until you have used up all the dough. You'll likely need to use at least two baking sheets.

Step 8

Bake the cookies for approximately 15-17 minutes on the middle rack of the oven until the edges are just starting to get lightly golden brown. Since every oven is different, your baking time might vary slightly. Also, if you made your cookies thicker than recommended above, they might need slightly longer. We would recommend baking the cookies one baking sheet at a time since they might cook unevenly if you have two baking sheets in a conventional oven at the same time.

Step 9

Take the cookies out of the oven and lift the parchment paper with the cookies from the baking sheet. Right away carefully move the cookies towards the center of the parchment paper and dust them in powdered sugar. Alternatively, you can also roll them in powdered sugar, but the cookies are more likely to break if you do that. Enjoy!