Friday, July 01, 2005

Cream Cheese-Walnut Cookies


Cream Cheese-Walnut Cookies(Adapted from MS Cookies)

4 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups walnut halves* See below how to prepare these

*1 1/2 cups toasted and chopped
*1 cup finely chopped

In large bowl, whisk together flour and salt and set aside.

Place butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in sugar and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add the flour mixture, and mix until just combined (do not overmix). Mix in the toasted walnuts.

Transfer dough to a clean work surface. Divide in half; shape each into an 8 1/2 to 8" long log. Wrap each log in saran wrap and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350, with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Remove one log from the freezer and unwrap. Roll in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, coating completely. Cut log into 1/4 " thick rounds. Transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment.

Bake, switching the sheets and rotating halfway through until cookies are golden around the edges, 16 to 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Repeat the same process with the other dough log and 1/2 cup walnuts.

7 comments:

  1. Hi there, I made these lovely cookies.They are so wonderful. I love the sort of creaminess they have plus the crunch bits.I just found it a bit tricky to roll the dough so mine look nothing like the gorgeous ones you made.

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  2. Yay! Great recipe. I made these much smaller and ended up with 8 dozen cookies, enough for two holiday cookie exchanges.

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  3. Valentina - Thanks!

    Amy - Glad you made them! I really enjoyed this recipe.

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  4. You are my hero - I had this recipe from the magazine and I couldn't find it! My adaptation is to interpret "finely chopped" as "pulverized". Makes it easier for me to form the log.

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  5. Theresa - I bet, while I did like it chunky, it was harder to roll!

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  6. Hey there Joe,
    Thanks so much for this recipe, I was looking for a way to use up my cream cheese and this was just perfect. I had them at my stand for the farmers market and people just loved them. I really love the incorporation of cream cheese into cookies, it seems to make a nice crumbly cookie, this worked wonderfully for the fig and date swirls too.

    Thanks for helping to make my stand at the farmers market a success, I raised lots of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

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  7. Jennywenny - Woohoo! I'm glad to hear that they went over well at the market!

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