- 10
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 6 ounces cream cheese (not whipped), room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups pecans
Preparation
Step 1
You could easily use walnuts, pistachios, or cashews in place of the pecans.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Coarsely chop 1 1/2 cups of the pecans and spread them on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until the nuts are fragrant. Set aside to cool.
Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl.
Beat together the butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat for another minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour and salt until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the toasted pecans.
Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide the dough in half. Roughly shape each half into a 8-inch log about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and place in the freezer until firm, about 4 hours, but overnight is best. The dough can sit in the freezer for up to two weeks and about a month if wrapped and then placed in an airtight container.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF with racks on the upper and lower thirds. Finely chop the remaining 1 1/2 cups of pecans. Unwrap one of the logs of dough and roll in the pecans. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Space 1-inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats.
Makes 4 1/2 dozen cookies.
Gosh, this brings back memories of my favorite great aunt. She made these often and called them her “refrigerator cookies”. Sometimes she would vary the thickness of the slices. Sometimes she would add some cocoa to the mixture. She always liked to “square up” her cookie rolls so that the shape of the cookie she ended up with was sort of like a rectangle with bulging sides.
Cookies are delicious – rich with just the right amount of cheesy tang. Not easy to make though – my cookies don’t look anywhere near as pretty as the photo. Still, worth the trouble. Thanks for the lovely recipe!
I made these for a friend and they turned out great! I put pistachios and cranberries in to add some extra color as well as some orange zest for flavor. Delicious cookies and cookie dough ;)