Austrian Vanilla Kipfer (crescents)l:

Ingredients:
14 Tbsp softened shortening (butter preferred by my family)
1 cup ground nuts, not too fine (walnuts are traditional here and preferred in my house)
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar (plus 1 cup later)
1 pkg vanilla sugar (found in European specialty stores but also whole foods these days)
Method:
Mix the flour, ground nuts, softened butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar and let the dough rest in the fridge for 1 hour. Cut same size portions from the dough and roll a ball in your hands from each piece (quickly, the dough softens fast), pull two ends out of the little ball and form a alltogether small but kind of big bellied crescent. Place on cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 360 F for about 10 minutes until they turn a very light color (don't brown them!). Let them cool about 10-15 minutes and when they are still warm you toss them carefully in a bowl with the cup of powdered sugar and the vanilla sugar so there warmth makes the sugar stick to them but not melt it completely). Keep in a tin (if you can, they usually don't stay in there for long, no matter if it is your family discovering the tin hiding place or just yourself. My friends call them heavenly nothingness.