More Christmas cookies! Cream cheese cookies with pumpkin seeds and cranberries

Just made some short bread Christmas cookies two days ago, and here I am, more Christmas cookies!! And this time, the Christmas tree has ornaments on them. Pretty pretty!!

 

I have some cream cheese that are waiting to be used up and would like to bake some of these to gift to my friends. Instead of using the previous short bread cookies recipe, I opted for Martha's recipe. Her original recipe uses walnut, I changed mine to pumpkin seeds and added cranberries, cos I wanted to add the green and red color to the trees so they are like ornaments on the trees. Don't you think they look great?

Mom, let me try and see if they taste nice. (the ornaments) -.-""

O Christmas tree (with red and green ornaments)

I've decided that we're not gonna put up the big Christmas tree at home this year. I don't want the lil' fella to rock the tree like how he rock the stand fan in our living room. I think we can do it next year. He'll definitely enjoy putting them up, while I bake our Christmas cookies.

Here's the recipe, adapted from Martha's

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt 
• 120g unsalted butter 
• 50g cream cheese, at room temperature       
• 1/4 cup molasses sugar
• 1tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted and coarsely chopped
• 1tbsp cranberries, coarsely chopped

1. Whisk together flour and salt. Put butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Mix until pale and fluffy. Mix in sugar and vanilla. Add in flour mixture until just combined (don't overmix). Mix in pumpkin seeds and cranberries.
2. Compact dough and transfer to cling film. Roll dough to about 1cm thickness. Wrap and chill until firm.
3. When dough is firm, cut out into desired shapes.
4. Preheat oven to 165 deg C. Bake for about 20min, until golden around edges.

Note: Due to the cream cheese in them, I found that the texture is not the crumbly type. It's quite soft. If you prefer the crumbly type with a slight crunch, try this Christmas cookies.