The popularisation and commodification of Vanillekipferl -- crumbly, crescent-shaped, vanilla-scented cookies, another staple of the holiday season -- in Vienna was made possible by the invention in the late-nineteenth century of one critical ingredient. In 1858, the French biochemist Theodore Nicolas Gobley successfully isolated the chemical compound C8H8O3, or, vanillin, which he achieved via the crystallisation of real vanilla extract, vanillin being its primary component. Gobley's work then beget that of the German scientists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann, who, in 1874, concluded that vanillin, the taste of real vanilla, could be made artificially from coniferin, a component of pine bark. The development of artificial vanilla was nothing short of a food revolution, making vanilla -- or, at least, something resembling vanilla (and today, the American Chemical Society reports that "almost all vanillin used in foods is manufactured, mostly from petrochemical feedstocks," meaning wood pulp) -- available to a mass audience.
In Austria, vanillin is used in the production of Vanillinzucker, vanilla sugar, which comes in small, 16g packages and is a core ingredient in homespun and mass-produced Vanillekipferl alike (including mine, but don't tell anyone). I don't know if this is the method everyone uses to make their Vanillekipferl, but here's how I do it. In a food processor, pulse flour, icing sugar, ground walnuts, cold butter cubes, and vanilla sugar until the butter is the size of breadcrumbs (or similar). Dump the mixture onto a clean surface and work it into a dough with your hands (and it's the heat of your hands that will help it come together). After resting the dough in the fridge, you can mould the Kipferl by taking a tiny piece of the mass, rolling it in the palms of your hands first into a ball and then a sausage, before shaping it into a crescent. Bake each tray of Kipferln for 15 minutes in a moderate oven, and while the cookies are still hot (counter-intuitive, I know), 'waltz' them through a bowl of icing sugar to coat (in a manner akin to Mexican wedding cookies). Place the snow-white Kipferln on a wire rack to cool, and in no time, you'll have enough cookies to see you through the holiday season.
