1 c Butter; softened
1/2 c Confectioner’s sugar
1 ts Vanilla
2 1/2 c Flour, all-purpose
1/2 c Walnuts; chopped
CANDY MIXTURE
1/4 lb Peppermint candy; crushed
1/2 c Confectioner’s sugar
FILLING
2 tb Cream cheese; softened
1 ts Milk
1 dr Red food coloring
1/2 c Confectioner’s sugar
3 tb Candy mixture; see above
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until fluffy. Add the flour
and walnuts and blend to form dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1
hour.
Candy mixture: In a small bowl combine both ingredients. Set aside. Three
tablespoons of this mixture is used in the filling and the remainder is
used to garnish the cookies.
The filling: In a bowl blend together the cream cheese, milk, food coloring
and the conf. sugar until smooth. Blend in 3 T of the cnady mixture.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and for each cookie pinch off a
rounded teaspoon of the dough. Form into a ball and shape around your
thumb to make a little compartment in the middle. Place about 1/4 teaspoon
of the cream cheese filling in the depression. Pinch the dough back
together and roll it back into a ball. Repeat the process with the
remaining dough and filling. Place the balls on a nonstick cookie sheet.
Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 10-12 minutes. Do not brown.
Remove cookies to a cooling rack. To garnish, roll the cooled cookies in
the remaining candy mixture.
Yields
36 Servings