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crescent-shaped crème cheese pastry filled with pecans, sugar, cinnamon
and crushed chocolate chips, baked until golden.
By Eileen Mintz
Makes 50 cookies
The Dough:
1 cup butter, softened, unsalted
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups of unbleached flour
1/4 cup sugar
¾ teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon rum extract
To make the dough, mix butter and cream cheese together in an electric mixer until blended. Add other sugar, then vanilla and rum extract, cream well. Then add flour. Take out of bowl and form into 5 equal pieces and flatten with hand to form a patty. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
The Filling:
4 teaspoons cinnamon
4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled
1 12-ounce package of dark chocolate chips
¾ cup of toasted, chopped pecans (toast in a 325 degree oven until lightly
browned)
3 tablespoons of instant coffee crystals (Sanka)
½ cup sugar
Have handy: oil and pastry brush, cinnamon and sugar mixture in a bowl (½ cup sugar and one tablespoon of cinnamon) and parchment paper.
Lay out 2 cookie sheets and line with parchment paper.
Crush all the filling ingredients in a food processor. Add cool melted butter. Mix again and set aside. Take 2 patties at a time from refrigerator and leave out for 10 minutes. Roll to about an 8-inch circle. Brush lightly with vegetable oil. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar evenly and cut into 10 wedges (if you want them larger, cut less wedges). Add 1 heaping regular teaspoon of chocolate chip filling on edge and roll up like a crescent. Lay out on parchment-covered cookie sheet and brush tops with a little oil and sprinkle again lightly with sugar and cinnamon. Fill the cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until browned to a medium toasted color. Cool on racks. Freezes well.
