Fruit Crescents

These crescent cookies use a cream cheese pastry dough that bakes up impossibly flaky and tender. Cream cheese and butter get cut into flour to create a dough that handles like pie crust but tastes richer and more complex. A 30-minute chill firms it up enough to roll thin without sticking.

Each 3-inch square of dough gets a teaspoon of apricot preserves placed just off-center, then folded into a triangle, rolled toward the point, and curved into a crescent shape. That rolling technique seals the preserves inside so they melt into a jammy pocket during baking without leaking out.

Rolling the warm, freshly baked crescents in powdered sugar while they’re still slightly warm lets the sugar stick and form a thin, sweet coating. A second roll after cooling gives them a thicker, snowier finish if you like. These are the kind of cookie that shows up on holiday trays and disappears first.

Kitchen Tips

• Chill the dough for the full 30 minutes. Warm dough is sticky, tears easily, and won’t hold the crescent shape
• Roll the dough thin, about ⅛ inch. Thicker dough won’t bake through evenly and the crescents will be doughy in the center
• Don’t overfill. One teaspoon of preserves per square is enough. More will burst through the seams during baking
• Seal the edges well by pressing firmly with your fingers or a fork. Gaps let the filling escape

Variations

• Use raspberry, strawberry, or cherry preserves instead of apricot for different fruit flavors
• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the powdered sugar for a spiced coating
• Fill with a mix of ground walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon for a traditional Eastern European nut filling