Apricot Cream Cheese Cookies - Sugar Free

These very simple cookies mean Christmas to my wonderful Italian family.

These are the cookies that my Grandma Helen and Aunt Lena made - they baked and stored them in huge printed tins. I remember my mother Beatrice making them every year. My Aunt Gail and Aunt Mickey make them and I am sure that all of my cousins do too!

The cream cheese dough bakes up flaky and the apricot is delicious. These are completely sugar free for all the diabetics out there and are a superb bariatric holiday treat.

No matter where I am or what is going on in my life, it is not Christmas without these cookies. They are pure love. Buon Natale!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cup flour, plus additional for rolling
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Smucker's Sugar Free Apricot (and Cherry or Raspberry Preserves)

Instructions

• Leave cream cheese and butter on counter for one hour to soften.
• Using food processor or beaters, blend the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
• Add flour and salt then blend until flour is completely incorporated.
• Gather dough into a smooth disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill 1-2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Lightly dust counter with flour and roll out 1/2 of the dough to 1/8 inch thickness and carefully cut into 2-inch squares, saving scraps to re-roll.
• Blend jar of preserves with a spoon so it is a smooth consistency.
• Place a 1/4 teaspoon dab of preserves in the center of each square. Fold over two opposite corners of square to the middle, overlapping slightly and pressing so they stick together and jam squishes out a bit.
• After folding each cookie, transfer to an un-greased cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart.
• Bake each batch for 10 to 12 minutes, until bottoms are barely golden brown.
• Transfer to a wire rack.
• Repeat with remaining dough.