Back when I was obsessed with Rainbow Cookies, I bought different types of almond products to use in the colorful little cakes. One of the products was Solo brand almond filling. It worked okay in the Rainbows, but we preferred almond paste over almond filling and ended up with an extra can. To use it up, I made Almond Crescents, one of the best Solo almond pie filling recipes.
Solo Almond Crescents
This recipe is from Solo and calls for a full can of almond filling. The filling plus almond extract gives the cookies a pretty strong almond flavor. And thanks to the filling, they are soft and tender crescents rather than crumbly and sandy textured crescents. They're good and fairly unique! If you or someone you know loves almond flavored things, they are perfect.
Solo Almond Pie Filling Recipes
I have to admit, I forget about almond cake & pastry filling until the holidays roll around. Going forward I'm going to try to create some new recipes for it. Solo's recipe page (link here) has a ton of great ideas! I've got my eye on the Kringla.
Almond Crescents with Almond Flour
If you want to make Almond Crescents without the almond paste, here's a second recipe. This dough calls for an egg yolk. For the almonds, you can use finely chopped toasted almonds or almond flour. If you really love almond flavor, you can use up to 2 teaspoons of the almond extract.
1 cup salted butter, softened (Land o' Lakes)
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar plus 1 cup more for rolling
1 teaspoon vanilla 1-2 teaspoon almond extract 1 egg yolk
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
⅛ teaspoon salt (increase to ½ teaspoon if using unsalted butter)
1 cup finely chopped almonds or ¾ cup almond flour (don't pack into cup)
Beat butter and powdered sugar until creamy, then beat in the extracts and the yolk. Add flour and salt and stir until blended, then stir in the nuts or almond flour. Cover bowl and chill dough until it is firm enough to shape. Shape into 2 ½ inch long crescents (you should get about 40) and bake on ungreased, unlined baking sheets at 350 for about 15 minutes (definitely check earlier, especially if making them smaller). Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar. When cool, give them a second little dusting.
More Recipes Involving Crescents
Recipe
Almond Filling Almond Crescents
Ingredients
- 8 oz salted butter 230 grams**
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar 70 grams
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 can 12.5 oz Solo Almond Cake and Pastry Filling
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 280 grams
- Confectioners' sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Beat in almond extract and almond filling until blended.
- With a spoon or scraper, stir in the flour to make a dough. It will be a little sticky and will require chilling, so cover and chill for a few hours until it is firm enough to shape.
- Preheat oven to 325° F. Dust hands with flour if you need to (I didn't). Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into small tapered crescents.
- Arrange about 2 ½ inches apart on baking sheet and bake 15 to 20 minutes or until cookies are firm and lightly browned.
- Let cool on baking sheets on wire racks 1 minute.
- Remove from baking sheets and cool on racks. When Almond Crescents are cool, roll them in confectioners' sugar.
Donna says
Are the cookies supposed to be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside or did I over bake them?
Anna says
You can, but they might spread a little more than usual Snowballs.
Julia says
Can you bake as a ball, i.e. Snowball cookie & roll in powdered sugar?
Anna says
Yes! You can freeze them.
MaryAnn says
Can these be frozen?
Anna says
Angie, glad you liked them! It's funny, I just stumbled across that one while looking for a way to use almond filling.
Angie says
These were easy to make!
There were just 5 ingredients!
They were delicious!
I'm adding them to my Christmas cookie list!!
Thanks again
Marsha M says
I have to try this recipe. I love anything almond!!
Sonya says
Yours look good!
Sue says
I love cookies like this. Almond flavored cookies make me happy.