A few years ago, I saw this cookie on the cover of a Martha Stewart Christmastime magazine.  I loved how these cookies looked and had to make them too.  They taste fantastic but aren’t soft for more than a few hours after coming out of the oven.  So, although you can crack some teeth on these babies, they taste wonderful and I keep making them.  They are great for dunking in tea 😉

Someone asked how I made the Walnut cookies; was that you?

This is how:
It’s a wooden form one space for the nut shell and the other for the inside of the nut meat design.

The form came from www.houseonthehill.net and I think I paid around $ 30 for it.
The recipe is as follows:

Cream Cheese Butter Cookies

2 & 1/2 cups flour , sifted

1/2 tsp. salt (omit if using salted butter)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 cup unsalted butter

3 oz cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

rind of one grated orange

Sift together flour, salt and cinnamon.  Cream butter and cream cheese together. Gradually add sugar and mix well.  Beat in egg, vanilla and orange rind, then slowly the flour mixture.  Chill dough well – over night or longer and chill scraps in the freezer before re-using.  Spray Pam (lightly) into mold press a ball of dough into the mold.  the tip of a knife will help to get the cookie out of the mold. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Walnut filling (or pecan, hazelnut, Nutella)

1 1/2 cups ground walnuts

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 T butter, softened

2 t. strong coffee

That’s it.