Peppermint Candy Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour, all-purpose

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/4 pound peppermint candy, crushed

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon milk

red food coloring

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

Preparation

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until fluffy. Add the flour and walnuts and blend to form dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

Candy mixture: In a small bowl combine both ingredients. Set aside. Three tablespoons of this mixture is used in the filling and the remainder is used to garnish the cookies.

The filling: In a bowl blend together the cream cheese, milk, a few drops of food coloring and the conf. sugar until smooth. Blend in 3 T of the candy mixture.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and for each cookie pinch off a rounded teaspoon of the dough. Form into a ball and shape around your thumb to make a little compartment in the middle. Place about 1/4 teaspoon of the cream cheese filling in the depression. Pinch the dough back together and roll it back into a ball. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and filling. Place the balls on a nonstick cookie sheet.

Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 10-12 minutes. Do not let it brown.

Remove cookies to a cooling rack. To garnish, roll the cooled cookies in the remaining candy mixture.