Date Moon Pastries

Tried a new recipe for the cookie tray this year. The recipe is from a Southern Living magazine and are quite good. They, however, are not cookies as such but more of a flakey pie crust type of dough. 

 This dough is great to work with, rolled out well and held together well. It is not a sweet dough at all so it really needs the powdered sugar sifted on top when they are cool.

 That said, if you want to try something different and like flakey layers of crust this is your cookie. I think they would be good filled with a good quality all fruit preserve.

Date Moon Pastries

Prep: 20 minutes   Chill: 1 hour    Bake 12 to 15 minutes per cookie sheet

½ cup butter softened

3 ounces cream cheese softened

1 cup all purpose flour

⅛ teaspoon salt

Filling

1 cup chopped dates

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup water

½ cup chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon grated orange rind

powdered sugar for sprinkling on cooled cookies
Directions

 Beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour and salt; beat until blended. Dough will be soft and slightly sticky.

 Shape into a ball on waxed paper and cover and chill 1 hour.

Meanwhile; stir together dates, sugar, and ¼ cup water in a saucepan over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes or until thickened. Keep in mind you are going to add the chopped nuts so it should be soft enough to stir the nuts in.

 Remove the date mixture from heat and stir in chopped nuts and orange rind and let cool.

 Divide dough in half and keep the half you are not working with in the refrigerator. Roll out on lightly floured board (it will not be sticky at this point) to ⅛ inch thickness. Cut dough with a 2 ½ to 3 inch round cutter and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Spoon on ½ teaspoon filling on lower ⅔ of cookie round. Fold over to form half moon shape and press edges to seal with a fork.

 Bake at 375°F for 12 to 15 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. When cool sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar.

Yield 3 dozen with 2 ½ inch cutter