Christmas Cookies - Third Batch

My husband requested these cream cheese-walnut cookies when he saw them pictured in a Martha Stewart Holiday Cookie magazine.  I had never made them before.  They are quite good, but do have a distinct cream cheese flavor.  We like the taste, so it works for us.  In fact, my husband liked them so much, he ate three before I could get them in the freezer!

I halved the recipe, which made 22 cookies.  I had trouble getting the walnuts to stick to the dough log after removing it from the freezer.  I only left it in the freezer for 30 minutes.  If you freeze it longer, you may need to let it warm up before rolling in walnuts.

Cream Cheese-Walnut Cookies

From Holiday Cookies by Martha Stewart

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups butter, softened

6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon vanilla

2 ½ cups walnuts (1 ½ cups should be coarsely chopped and 1 cup should be finely chopped)

Sift together flour and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and cream cheese at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in sugar and vanilla.  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour and mix until just combined.  Mix in walnuts.

Transfer dough to work surface.  Divide in half; shape each half into a log about 2 inches in diameter.  Wrap each log in parchment paper and freeze about 30 minutes, or up to two weeks.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.   Roll each log in ½ cup chopped walnuts.  Slice into ¼-inch thick rounds.  Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake cookies, rotating halfway through, until golden around the edges, about 18-20 minutes.  Let cool on wire racks.

Printable recipe
(Thanks to Angie of http://godsgrowinggarden.blogspot.com, for telling me how to link a printable recipe!)