The traditional way to prepare Polish pecan cookies -- ciastka kruche z orzechami -- is by enveloping a pecan half in the fragile dough. My family took a shortcut by adding ground pecans to the dough and forming it into crescent shapes. They usually were made only at Christmas because they were time consuming and pecans were (and still are!) so expensive, thus we called them "Christmas crescents."

I've taken a further shortcut by scooping the dough and tamping it down. The crescents have become full moons! They are similar to Russian tea cakes, snowballs and Mexican wedding cookies.