I selfishly developed this recipe just for me. I love cream cheese doughs and I love nuts. I love desserts, but not too sweet, and cuteness is a definite plus. This recipe has it all and would be pure heaven with a good cup of coffee.
Pocket Full of Nuts
~makes 20-24 pockets
*Updated 11/28/20 with ingredient alternatives.
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
- 3 ounces cold cream cheese
- scant 1/2 cup ground pecans
- scant 1/3 cup ground almonds
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream or half & half
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Instructions –
1. In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt. Cut butter and cream cheese into flour with a pastry cutter, until course crumbles form. Using your hands, pack together until it forms one rectangular block. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. You can chill over-night, but will need to let it soften a bit before you can roll it.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium sized bowl, mix together nuts, sugar, heavy cream, and extracts. Set aside.
3. Roll out dough to 1/8″ thick on a lightly floured surface. Using a ruler, carefully cut 2.5″ squares. Place 1 teaspoon (only!) of nut mixture in the center of each square.
4. Bring the 4 points together and very lightly pinch together edges (don’t force it to seal). Place on ungreased baking sheets, 1″ apart. Brush with egg wash.
* At this point, you can freeze them and bake them straight from frozen (might take an additional 2 minutes) another day. If you’re freezing, place them on a tray lined with parchment paper to prevent sticking from the egg wash. Once they are frozen, you can store in freezer bags.
5.Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
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Jess these look superdelicious.
“I love cream cheese doughs and I love nuts. I love desserts, but not too sweet, and cuteness is a definite plus”: I am with you on all of this!
Mmmm…those look divine! I’m with you on the cream cheese – anywhere I can use it, I do!
Oh. Yum. Cream cheese doughs are tasty. And with those nuts…a winner.
Ooh–I would love to try this!
These look really great! I’ve never had a cream cheese dough before, but it sounds like something I’d love.
I would make this for me too. But I’ll just beg you to make me some. 🙂
We’ll be here all wkend to accept delivery 🙂
where do you use the sugar?
Jackie, so sorry, I’ve corrected it. Thanks for letting me know.
oh, these look divine!
nothing selfish about that at all, jessica–your little packages are extraordinary! they’re picture-perfect, i love the dough, and the filling is a bit baklava-like, which excites me very much. bravo!
Grace, funny, my friend’s mom was just saying that if I drizzled honey all over it, it would be Mediterranean or Middle Eastern…
These look fantastic! Have you ever tried filling them the day before (keeping in the fridge overnight), then baking them the next day? I want to make these for a party, but don’t have time the day of to do any rolling and/or filling. I wonder if it would turn out ok.
Melissa, I haven’t made these ahead of time but my best guess is that if you assemble them completely and freeze them, you can just lay them out and bake them a little longer. Usually freezing works better than refrigerating. Let me know how it turns out and I would love to post up your pictures too!
Can not wait to try these. They look beautiful!