Austrian Almond Vanilla Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place almonds on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes until fragrant and lightly toasted.

Watch carefully to ensure they do nut burn.

Let cool slightly and place in a food processor with about 2 tablespoons of the flour.

Pulse just until mixture resembles bread crumbs, and then add remaining flour, salt and 1/4 cup of sugar.

Pulse to mix, then add butter and vanilla and process until mixture comes together as a dough.

Remove from food processor, shape into a ball and cover. Refrigerate for at least an hour or up to a day.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Pinch off tablespoons of dough and roll into short ropes.

Bend into crescent moon shapes on baking sheets, leaving about two inches between cookies.

Bake until bottoms of cookies are lightly golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

Let cool slightly (cookies will be very delicate and crumbly at this point) and then transfer to a wire rack.

While still warm, sprinkle cookies with some of the remaining powdered sugar.

Sprinkle again with sugar just before serving.

Variations: You may substitute a similar amount of blanched hazelnuts or walnuts. Once baked and cooled, they can be drizzled with melted bittersweet chocolate for decoration. Do not add the last sprinkling of sugar in this case.