Vanilla Half Moons Recipes

VANILLA HALF-MOONS

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Split the half of vanilla bean and scrape the seeds; stir the seeds into the butter mixture. Mix in the flour and ground almonds. Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap and refrigerate until firm.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Break off tablespoonful sized pieces of dough and roll them into little ropes about 2 inches long. Bend the ropes into a half circle and place them 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
• Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned. Scrape the seeds from the remaining vanilla bean and stir them into the confectioners' sugar. Carefully roll warm cookies in the vanilla sugar.

VANILLA HALF MOON COOKIES

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 375'F.
• 2. Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add sour milk, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
• 3. Drop by 1/4 cupfuls onto a greased baking sheet, rounding off the tops to make a thick-like looking pancake.
• 4. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until edges are bottoms are just beginning to brown. DO NOT OVERBAKE, you don't want them to be dry.
• 5. Cool them on a wire rack. Once cooled completely, it's time to frost them. Remember to turn them upside down and frost the bottom.
• 6. Frosting: In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Yield: About 3 cups.
• 7. Frost the cookies on half of the bottom side with the vanilla frosting. Then add 1 oz. of unsweetened melted chocolate or Hershey's Unsweetened Baking Cocoa and mix well. (You may have to add a little more milk to this.) Now, frost the other half and there you have it...Half Moons!

HALF MOONS II

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Mix the butter with the nuts and sugar until well combined. Add the flour and the vanilla and mix.
• Rolling about a tablespoon of dough in your hand, form a half moon or crescent shape.
• Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheets at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheets and roll in white sugar.

THE "ORIGINAL HALF MOON COOKIES"

Steps:

• Cream together shortening and sugar and then add beaten egg and vanilla.
• sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
• add alternately mixture of sifted flour ingreidents and the soured milk to the creamed shortening mixture batter should be thick drop by tablespoons (one on top of the other to give it height one unlevel on bottom one level on top) onto cookie trays bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes until lightly brown on bottoms.
• cool completely and frost one side with pure white frosting and the other with dark chocolate frosting you can make your own or used canned.
• If the batter comes out soupy or sticky I add additional flour

HALF-MOON COOKIES (HEMSTROUGHT'S BAKERY) RECIPE - (4.3/5)

Steps:

• Hello all. Here is the actual recipe for Hemstrought's half-moons. I used to work at Hemstrought's back in the 70s when the store was on Oriskany Circle. It's since been demolished to make way for the highway. Bob Hemstrought was a nice guy, though not sure if he's still around now. He was the head baker. So... here you go! We all know it's worth the effort! Enjoy! FOR THE COOKIES: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside. Put sugar, margarine, cocoa, and salt in bowl of standing mixer and beat on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat. Add half the milk, then half the flour mixture, beating after each addition until smooth; repeat with remaining milk and flour mixture. Spoon or pipe batter onto parchment-lined baking sheets, making 3-inch rounds 2-inches apart. Bake until cookies are set, about 12 minutes. Allow to cool, then remove from parchment. FOR THE FUDGE ICING: Melt bittersweet and semisweet chocolates and butter in the top of a double boiler over simmering water over medium heat. Add confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, salt, and 6 tbsp. boiling water and mix to a smooth, stiff paste with a rubber spatula. Thin icing with up to 8 tbsp. more boiling water. Icing should fall from a spoon in thick ribbons. Keep icing warm in a double boiler over low heat. FOR THE BUTTERCREAM ICING: Put sugar, butter, shortening, milk, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on low speed to mix, then increase to medium and beat until light and fluffy. TO FROST THE COOKIES: Using a metal spatula, spread about 1 tbsp. of warm fudge icing on half of the flat side of each cookie. Spread the other half of each cookie with 1 heaping tbsp. buttercream icing.