Pecan Roll-Ups

• 1 C butter, room temperature


• 1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature


• 2 C all-purpose flour


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract


• 2 C pecan halves (or chopped, they work fine too)


• 1 C powdered sugar

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat butter, cream cheese and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine flour and salt, and gradually add to the butter mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours, or until easy to handle.

Divid dough in half. On a surface dusted with flour or powdered sugar, roll out one portion of dough into an 18"x8" rectangle. Cut widthwise into six 3" sections. Cut each section into 3"x1" stips. Roll each strip around a pecan half, or pinch of chopped pecans, place 1" apart on on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Roll in or dust with powdered sugar. Store loosely covered, or freeze up to 3 months. YEILD: 8 dozen

Buttery and rich, a little flaky and crunchy, these are a perfect holiday cookie! They are a bit time consuming, but soooo worth it. When rolling them out, I recommend dusting your surface with powdered sugar to help impart a little bit more sweetness. I think using flour would make them bland. These are nice because they are much less sweet than most holiday goodies. I'm not very good at rolling dough into a rectangle. The first half of dough I didn't do a very good job on. It was too thick and the cookies ended up being a little doughy. The second half of dough I did a bit better on. I shaped the dough into a log before rolling, then I took more time to get it shaped better. That second batch turned out much nicer. Also make sure you do not under-cook these. Some cookies are forgiving of a little underdoneness, these are not.