Baking season continues: Nougat Crescents

[wiseheart]

Having these written up, I've finally reached the current state of the baking orgy. There won't be more baking until next week, as we're out of town on Saturday and will probably be dead on Sunday after our day-long trip to the Schlosshof and Pressburg (Bratislava).

Ingredients:
210 gr nougat mass
90 gr butter or margarine
30 gr vanilla-flavoured sugar
1 pinch of salt
310 gr white flour
1 eggyolk

For the decoration:
chocolate covering

How to make it:
* mix all ingredients on a working surface
* knead a smooth dough, form a roll and let it rest in the fridge for at least two hours (rolled into tinfoil is the best)
* pre-heat oven to 180°C; cover baking tin with baking paper
* take dough out of the fridge, cut walnut-sized pieces, make rolls of the places and form crescents
* bake them 10-15 minutes until light brown
* let them cool on the baking tin (or don't; I usually remove them at once and let them cool on a flat surface)
* when cooled, dip both ends into fluid chocolate covering

In a well-sealed tin box the crescents remain fresh for 14 days.

Notes:

This is the official recipe; our family finds, however, that it could do with the addition of a little sugar, as we don't think it's quite sweet enough like this.

Also, the dough crumbles horribly, no matter what one does. I've baked it dozens of times, but it's always such a bother; I swear every year never to bake them again, but in the end I make them anyway. I have no idea what the reason is - suggestions are welcome.

Comments

[sammydragoncat]

Sounds interesting, I have a question - what is nougat mass? If it is what I think it is, I can't quite picture how that would work into the dough. I hope you enjoy your trip.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Ummm... I'm not sure how to explain it. It's a semi-solid block of paste, amde of almonds or hazelnuts and I have no idea what else. Some kind of fat, I think, either cocoa butter or coconit fat or whatever. In any case, it can be chopped like cold butter and mixed with the other ingredient, and if you knead enough, it will be dispersed evenly in the dough.

I tried to look up the word in my German-to-English dictionary, but it only gave me nugat for nougat and the only related word was nugat filling, so I'm at a loss.

I seriously hope that we'll have pleasant weather tomorrow and no ice on the roads. Cross your finger for us. I'd prefer to go by train, but these daily trips are always done by bus.

[sammydragoncat]

I thought it was something like that, it's what's in the center of some candy bars. I've never seen it sold by it self - I'll have to check around some specialty markets.

I hope you have pleasant weather.