Spiced White Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Believe it or not, its Christmas time again! That means its time to start planning your Christmas baking. There are so many Christmassy recipes out there that you may be having trouble trying to decide what to bake. Well, let me help with your decision by recommending that you add these spiced white chocolate chip pecan cookies to your baking list!

These unsuspecting-looking shortbread-like cookies have the warm flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg with chunks of pecans and white chocolate. They smell delicious baking in the oven, and taste even more delicious with a hot cup of coffee or tea.

Is there something special that you, or your family, bake each year at Christmas? If not, let these spiced cookies be the start of a new Christmas tradition!

To me, Christmas baking means grandmas delicious pies. She would make the same pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas sugar pie (thats what she called it, but I think it was pecan pie), oatmeal pie and pumpkin pie. Shed also throw in a fruit cake as well, of course. Grandma doesnt make these pies anymore though, as theyre just too much work for her these days, but theyre the first thing I think of when Christmastime comes around.

My family and I (my husband, kids and I, I mean) dont have any Christmas traditions at all, but I aim on starting some this year. I think Ill make a nice lunch for when nana comes over, and well bake and decorate gingerbread men with the kids. Although, Im not sure yet how Ill distract the kids from their new toys long enough to make gingerbread men!?

Anyway, the recipe for these lovely little cookies comes from a Philadelphia Cream Cheese + Cadbury Chocolate recipe book. Here in Australia, they were offering this cookbook for free if you bought 3 Philly products, but I cant find anywhere to actually buy it without buying the Philly products. And yes, there is cream cheese in these cookies! If you dont like cream cheese, dont fret, as you cant taste any cream cheese. In fact, Im not even sure what purpose the cream cheese serves in this recipe, as I cant taste it, and I cant work out if its affected the texture of the cookies, which is a sort of melt-in-your-mouth shortbread texture. Whatever purpose it is, these cookies are really delicious and I highly recommend baking a batch!

Spiced White Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
Adapted from Simply Heaven: Chocolate
Makes 40-50

Ingredients
200g unsalted butter, softened
125g cream cheese (from a block), softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch salt
1/3 pecans, finely chopped
100g white chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups pecans, extra, finely chopped

Method
Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Sift in flour, spices and salt and stir until combined. Add the 1/3 cup pecans and chocolate and mix well.

Lightly knead the mixture until smooth, then divide in half. Shape each piece of dough into a 25-cm log. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and freeze for 15-20 minutes to firm before rolling each log in the extra pecans to coat. Cut the log into 1-cm thick slices and place onto baking paper-lined baking tray.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 18-20 minutes or until cooked and lightly golden. Stand for 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool.

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