Cream Cheese Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 cup butter
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup green decorator sugar
• 48 pecan halves
• 1/2 cup red decorator sugar

Recipe

• in a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese. add sugar and vanilla. with electric mixer at medium speed, beat until light and fluffy. in medium sized bowl, combine flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture, beating until well blended. stir in chopped pecans. cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
• on four sheets of aluminun foil, shape dough into four 6 inch rolls, 1 1/2 inches in diameter. wrap each roll tightly in foil and refrigerate over night.
• preheat oven to 325 degrees f (170 degrees c).
• line cookie sheets with foil. remove rolls of dough from refrigerator one at a time. coat each roll with red or green sugar crystals; cut dough into 1/4 inch slices. place on prepared cookie sheets; top each cookie with a pecan half. bake for 15 - 18 minutes, or until bottom of cookie is lightly browned when lifted. these look so nice for christmas.