Pecan Melt Cookies

Mixer Surgery

I was lucky that I made cookies for cookie Thursday before my mixer broke down. It was mixing fine until it wasn't. That is how fast it takes for a gear to break. That turned into another project called- lets try and figure out whats wrong with the mixer... hours later I learned that it was a $5 gear that I needed to replace. I was so happy that I didn't have to get a new mixer. In a way I'm glad that I took the whole thing apart, cause now I know the inner workings of my mixer.
Now on with the yummy pecan chocolate cookies. This original recipe came from Martha Stewart and used walnuts only. But I saw potental in changing the nuts and adding chocolate. I also used half whole wheat flour and half white flour. They still turned out great. If you don't have pecans you could use almonds, hazelnuts or even walnuts. Let's get on with Cookie Thursday!

This dough has no eggs in it so it's safe to eat raw. 

Pecan Melt Cookies:
Adapted from Martha Stewart's- cream cheese walnut cookies
6oz cream cheese (not whipped) at room temp
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
 2 TBS vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips, chopped
1 1/2 cups pecan pieces toasted and chopped fine
1 cup pecan pieces chopped fine

Combine the flours, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and cream cheese in a electric mixer for 2 min till light and fluffy. Mix in the sugar and the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the flour/salt. Mix to combine don't overmix. Then fold in the toasted pecans (cooled) and chocolate pieces.

Take the dough out of the bowl and divide into 2 logs, rolling in parchment paper or plastic wrap. Freeze till firm about 30 min.  While the dough is chilling preheat the oven to 350. Unwrap 1 log and roll in 1/2 cup of the remaining pecans and repeat with the other log. Cut the log into 1/4 inch thick rounds, and arrange on a cookie sheet with parchment. they don't spread much so they can be fairly close to each other.  Bake the cookies for 15-19 min  until golden around the edge (don't forget to rotate the pan half way through- ALWAYS do this with cookies) This makes about 4 dozen cookies. I only baked 1 log and I am saving the other log for later. Since we have cookies every week I try and not have too many around.