Cream Cheese Cookie Day

Today we made Cream Cheese Cookies. Making Cream Cheese Cookies is a Christmastide tradition at our house, started by Grandma, who used to make them when Dad was a kid. So, naturally, it was best to make them while she was here! We don't make them every single year, but we do it often enough that we have a collection of photos from various Cookie-baking sessions.

We have the picture of Dad and I making them soon after we moved into our just- finished house when I was nearly three- I'm sitting on the counter in training pants holding the beaters. Then there are pictures from the year that Ethan was born and Grandma was here to make them with us. Other pictures feature Grandma, Mom, Cousin Kimmy, and me with powdered sugar all over Grandma's kitchen table. Last time we made them, Connor covered his whole face in powdered sugar and looked...well, like his usual hilarious self! (I apologize for the illegal usage of "his" and "self" there, but...I can't help it.)

This time Mom wasn't here, but Grandma was, so all of us (Grandma, Dad, Connor, Mattie, Ethan, and I) jumped in and did it. The process certainly requires several sets of hands, unless you just really relish time with your rolling pin. As in, several DAYS. Actually, with all of us helping, (or "un-helping" in Ethan's case) it only took a few hours. Maybe three or so. By the end, there was a coat of powedered sugar-snow over the whole vicinity, a number of ghostly powdered sugar handprints on certain peoples' clothing (I'm not just talking about Ethan!), and a tupperware tub full of delicious cookies.

First, Grandma chopped nuts and I mixed dough, and then we made up the filling. That was the easy part. Then it was time for the assembly line. Dad and Ethan made "golfballs" (balls of dough) and I rolled them into 6 inch circles in powdered sugar, while Connor and Mattie sliced the circles into 6 parts, dabbed filling into the middles of the 6 triangles, and folded in the corners to make darling little cookies. Grandma hovered between the dabbing station and the oven, switching trayful after trayful.

The recipe is as follows, in case you want to make them too:

~Cream Cheese Cookies~

Dough:

1 lb. butter
1 lb. cream cheese
4 C flour

Cream butter and cheese together. Stir in flour. Form balls about the size of a golf ball with dough. Roll out to a circle less than 1/8 inch thick, using powdered sugar rather than flour. Cut circle of dough into sixths. Put a very small amount of filling* (about the size of a pea or lima bean) in the center of each wedge and fold the points into the center of each wedge (the points should overlap).

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 F for 10 min. or until bottoms of cookies are golden brown. Cool completely. Dip in powdered sugar and serve.

*Filling:

2 egg whites
1 C sugar
1 C finely chopped walnuts (we use pecans)

Beat egg whites until very stiff. Beat in sugar, then fold in the nuts.

Enjoy!

The cookies end up being sort of like tiny three-cornered hats about an inch and a half in diameter. The pastry is flaky and melts delicately in your mouth with a sweet propriety I never would have expected in a cookie. They politely invite you back for more, so that it's quite possible to eat a dozen of the dainty little things without even beginning to feel like a pig. Well. Now you see why they've become a traditon. Cream Cheese Cookies delight the palate, bring the family together for some fun, and make a perfect Christmas party snack (although we rarely sacrifice them to the public.) Now you'll have to make them to see what I mean!

Have a merry Week-Before-Christmas!