My Czech granny’s recipe for vanilkove rohlicky. Melt-in-the-mouth, crumbly vanilla-scented crescents, traditionally made for Christmas. Our family celebration isn’t complete without a selection of little biscuits or pecivo.
The recipe is so simple, it’s a bit intimidating – the original directions simply said to “mix ingredients” and then to “bake”. That was it. I’ve included a bit more detail
- 200g plain flour
- 150g unsalted butter
- 100g ground unblanched almonds (suggest grinding them yourself if you can. You could also use hazelnuts or walnuts)
- 50g caster sugar
- Vanilla icing sugar for finishing
- Pre-heat oven to 150C fan and grease or line baking tray
- Mix ingredients. It will feel as though the mixure is too dry and it won’t come together. Don’t be tempted to add liquid, it will happen!
- Make into crescents. Traditionally approx 5cm long. Don’t use too much dough, these are quite small. Roll between your fingers to made a slightly tapered sausage, and then curve round into a crescent shape
- Place on baking tray and bake for around 20 mins until slightly golden. Don’t over-cook
- Shake in vanilla icing sugar (or sift over) whilst still warm and then leave on a rack to cool
- Store in an airtight tin with any leftover icing sugar
If you don’t have vanilla icing sugar, you can make some in advance by putting used vanilla pods into icing sugar and leaving for 2 weeks, shaking periodically. Or if you’re not organised enough (I’m not), you can just add 1 tsp of vanilla extract to the dough mixture.
You can also make vanilla extract by sinking used vanilla pods into a bottle of vodka (around 4 pods to 200ml alcohol), and I always add a couple of tbsp sugar too. It should be ready to use in a few weeks, but will get stronger the longer you leave it. A higher proportion of vodka will result in some absolutely delicious vanilla vodka, rather than vanilla extract.
Sophie cooks 