Cream Cheese Walnut Drop Cookies

It's probably a good thing I only ever make these for Christmas, or I'm terribly afraid I would be an even larger size than I am already. These are one of the three kinds of cookies I absolutely MUST make every year, because they're not only easy they're amazing. Imagine cheesecake in cookie form, and you're getting close.

The recipe was not originally mine, it came from Food.com. But I've re-written the instructions a bit. I also always make a triple batch, because they're so very tasty.

As I said, I always make a triple batch. Thus the three sticks of butter and block+ of cream cheese. I do, however, use neufchatel cheese (1/3 -less-fat cream cheese) and they come out perfectly. Oddly, I always insist on whole milk, although I have made them with skim before as well, and it does need to be butter rather than margarine. But they're very simple: flour, sugar, cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla, and walnuts. They're also fairly cheap if you catch everything on sale.

First step is to beat the butter, cream cheese, and milk together until they're well-blended and smooth. Depending on how soft you let them get before you start, this can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to most of your life. I usually end up putting the butter and cream cheese in the microwave on defrost for a minute or two so they're on the verge of melting, but not quite there.

It's been a bit since I made these, so I honestly can't remember if the picture above shows just the butter, cream cheese and milk or if I took it after I beat in the sugar and vanilla as well. It could go either way, and beating in the sugar and vanilla is the next step. I think I took it after I beat in the sugar, but I just can't be sure.

Then you add the flour. I usually do it in three batches, beating well between each one. Depending on how much flour I add at a time, I can usually use the hand mixer for 1-2 additions of flour before I've got to pull it and continue mixing by hand. The batter gets pretty stiff pretty quickly.

Last thing to stir in is the chopped walnuts. When you first pour them into the bowl you're going to think there are way too many for how much dough you have. There aren't. It's absolutely perfect, as long as you make sure they are well-mixed  and incorporated into every bit of the dough.

I usually do dollops of dough somewhere between a walnut and a golf ball in size. The recipe says to do it by the tablespoonful, and that's about right... Except I interpret that as the tablespoon I used to stir the dough rather than an actual measuring tablespoon. You can do whatever size you want, of course, but the larger the dollops of dough the more they'll spread.

I always end up with a few that spread out and touch, but I just "cut" them apart on the cookie sheet with the side of my spatula. The important part here is to not overcook them in the oven, and also to leave them on the cookie sheet for at least a couple of minutes before removing them to racks. When they first come out they're VERY easy to break apart, but leaving them to cook a little longer on the sheets firms up the bottoms nicely so they can be easily moved to a cooling rack.

The thing to watch for is burning the bottoms. They do burn fairly easily, so you want to take them out when they're just starting to brown on the edges. When done properly, the insides should be cheesecake-ish, but you should still be able to hold them flat by one edge.

They only take about 15 minutes to cool once you move them to racks, which is really handy for me since I make a ton of them and I only have so many racks. These are easily in my top five favourite cookies ever.

Cream Cheese Walnut Drop Cookies

Makes 36

1/2 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened (1/3-less-fat will work)
1 tablespoon milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Serving Size: 1 (16 g)

Calories: 76

Calories from Fat: 40

Total Fat: 4.4 g

Saturated Fat: 2.2 g

Cholesterol: 9.4 mg

Sodium: 25.4 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 8.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.2 g

Sugars: 5.6 g

Protein: 0.8 g

Nutrition information assumes full fat cream cheese, so it'll be a little different if you use neufchatel cheese instead. And again, this wasn't originally my recipe, it came from Food.com.