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Active Time
1 hr
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Total Time
2 1/2 hr
These pastries are best when freshly baked, so if you plan on giving them to someone who may not be able to serve them within a day or two, you should deliver them frozen, along with the baking instructions.
Ingredients
Makes about 5 dozen small pastries
For pastry dough
For filling
For egg wash
Special Equipment
Make pastry dough:
Step 1
Pulse butter, cream cheese, sugar, salt, and flour in a food processor just until a dough forms. (Do not overwork dough, or pastry will be tough.)
Step 2
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough and form into 2 balls, then flatten each ball into a 6-inch disk. Chill disks, each wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
Make filling:
Step 3
Pulse walnuts, prunes, sugar, cinnamon, and Sherry in food processor until nuts are finely chopped and filling forms a thick paste.
Form and bake crescents:
Step 4
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Step 5
Roll out 1 disk of dough (keep the other chilled) into a roughly 14-inch round (about 1/8 inch thick) on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Cut out rounds with floured cookie cutter. Chill scraps.
Step 6
Put 1/2 teaspoon of filling in center of 1 dough round. Brush some of egg wash halfway around pastry, near edge, then fold dough over filling, forming a half-moon shape. Pinch edges to seal. Make more crescents in same manner, rerolling scraps (but only once).
Step 7
Arrange crescents 1/2 inch apart on 2 buttered large baking sheets and lightly brush tops with egg wash. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, in middle of oven until tops are pale golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool.
• Dough can be chilled, wrapped well, up to 1 day.
• Filling can be made 4 days ahead and chilled, covered.
• Unbaked filled crescents (without egg wash brushed on top) can be frozen, wrapped well in plastic wrap, 2 weeks. Thaw, then brush with egg wash before baking.
Leave a Review
Reviews (4)
Back to TopThese cookies are what the holidays are all about. They are both lovely and tasty. I adore the pastry dough and have used it with store bought prune lekvar filling when time is limited. I also top them with pearlized sugar.
Anonymous
Kansas City
12/23/2008
Um-- why would you assume that spelling and recipe-writing have anything to do with each other? Or that the error was caused by the writer and not by an exhausted proofreader? I am a language and grammar teacher and I can tell you that spelling has nothing to do with language ability, let alone culinary ability. Having said that-- these were really great. I made them exactly as the recipe directed and loved them. Tender and great.
Anonymous
New York, NY
7/12/2004
I didn't make this recipe because if you can't even spell the word "crescents" correctly, the recipe probably isn't correct, either.
Anonymous
Portland, OR
7/8/2004
Iused somer sweet instead of sugar.I can not have anything with sugar. These turned out excellent.It is so nice to have a recipe I can convert to use that sweetner.No problem with the recipe and they turned out very tasty. I am going to try them with other fillings.I am also going to send this on to my friend up north in Mi. so she can also make these. THANK YOU so much.
Sue Wagner
St.Clair Shores ,MI
12/9/2002
