Nevermind! I found a picture that Stacy posted a while back.

oh my gosh Shaun, I've been waiting to post about them until I had a photo to post with them, but have not gotten around to making yet - I forgot that I had one from last year - lol!

Here it is - oh I really want one NOW!

{{gwi:1467823}}

Best darn cookie I ever had and...I never shared one...ate them myself. So this year I feel obliged....these are so good!

I'm going to make these for the cookie exchange! They look SO good!

So, can I make them smaller so I can stretch the recipe??

Stacy thanks for posting that pic!

sheesh, Shaun, I really don't know!both the nice edge and the chewy center are important to the cookie, I'd say - but it seems that you may be able to. I'm not sure. Sorry!

Copied, pasted, planning to double the recipe...at least.
They look awesome!

You guys had BETTER be right.......... :+)

Deanna

I plan to make them this weekend, if they can be frozen without compromising the texture and flavor. Has anyone done this successfully?

So where is the recipe? Didn't come up on search.

This is Sherry's original reci-pe.

"Santa's Helpers."
Cookie:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
Add 1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat until smooth
Add:
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Beat until smooth
Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Stir until smooth and then add:
1 cup chopped walnuts

Divide dough into quarters. Form each quarter into 6 balls. Place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. With finger, make a wide deep depression in each cookie, clear to the edge. Fill with topping. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, (or in a convection oven, about 9 minutes)
If you undercook these, the filling is so heavy that it will break through when you pick them up, so I make them crunchy. You could also not make the depression in them as deep and there would be more dough to suport the filling so that it did not break through. These are my family's favorite cookies, and we have never ever seen them anywhere else. (They were my secret weapon)
Also, if I make a huge depression in them, I sometimes make half again as much filling so I don't run out.
Makes 24 cookies

Sherry, do you sift the flour to measure it?

I am making these right now . I never ever sift flour.
As far as making them smaller, Shaun, all you have to do is not make the indentation so wide and deep, and they will be smaller diameter and taller instead of wide and flat. I have made them both ways, but we prefer them flatter like the picture above.
Sherry

Do they freeze well?

Thanks for the recipe. With all the raves I'll have to make them.

I filing the recipe I discovered I already had it listed as Sant's Litlle Walnut Helper's. LOLComputers are so logically illogical.

Well, I made them today, and even though I made a smaller depression, they still spread out very large. Perhaps in the past I refrigerated the dough first and that is why it did not spread out so much.
Anyway, I do not see any reason why you could not make more of these than the 24 the recipe makes. They will definitely be smaller if you make at least 36. Maybe you could get 48. You might try making the smaller ones, and baking 3-4 first to get a good idea of how long to bake them. I bake 15 minutes for the bigger ones, and they are crunchy rather than soft, cause I love crunchy cookies. If you make them smaller, check them at 10 minutes or so.
Also, let them cool before removing them from the cookie sheet, or the heavy nutty centers will fall through the cookie. Once they have cooled, the center solids up.
Good luck. I made a double batch, but did the big ones and got 48 from a double batch, and they were very large.
Sherry

By the way, I freeze them every year.
Sherry

Sherry, I need to make 54 of them. (4 1/2 dozen) for that cookie exchange. I might experiment with them this afternoon.

Can I use lightly salted butter or should I use UNsalted butter? Here I go again with the salted vs unsalted butter questions hahahahhaah!!!

Shaun, I use unsalted butter for baking...HOWEVER, before I ever joined this forum, I always used salted butter in my baking. To be perfectly honest, I can't taste the difference, or see the difference. Use what you have.
Sherry

Ok! Thanks again Sherry!

Sherry..These are keepers! I don't know if I formed them right..but boy oh boy.. we love them!
Thanks so much!

stacy i LOVE your plate! and monique--you really have such an incredible eye for composition. even if my cookies looked like that, my coffee cup and poinsettia certainly wouldn't...

Monique,
Glad you liked them. Yours look absolutely beautiful to me! I think they are unlike any cookie I have ever tasted. Perhaps that's why I like them so much.
Shaun, did you make them?
Sherry

Welp, I must tell you. I did make them. Lots of them. And they are probably one of the best tasting cookies I've ever had and guess what? Hubs agrees; he loves them.

The first batch looked very similar to Monique's picture above; same size same amount of filling etc., so what did I do? I decided to make them bigger and with more filling. And so proceeded to make up several cookie sheets with the bigger versions and had both ovens going and baked them all at the same time.

BIG MISTAKE.

I couldnt lift the cookie without it falling apart. Couldn't get them off the cookie sheet. The ones that I did get off the sheet in one piece, I cooled and then gently placed into a tupperware container. Then all the cookies stuck together and you can't get them apart in one piece, you get chunks of cookie. I saw hubs with a tiny spatula last night eating the cookies out of the container. hahahaha!

Here is what's left of the smaller ones that I should have just left alone and not tried to make them bigger:

{{!gwi}}

And here is what the bigger ones look like, I see hubs left the little spatula in there! haha!

{{!gwi}}

These little cookies are wonderful and to me, they taste like a really good coffee cake.

So, I did not take these to the cookie exchange; I made regular plain old butter cookies with the cookie press. Made some of the dough green, some red and left some uncolored. Put sprinkles on some of them and left others plain.

My cookies won 3rd place after all that! (Only out of 11 entries) Such a plain little cookie with such big butter flavor; everyone really loved them.

Sherry, I know I'll be making the Santa's Helpers again; maybe for xmas eve! We loved them. Thanks for the recipe.

Um, like Shaun...weren't you going to try and like make them smaller not like bigger? LOL - the tiny spatula is too much. Anyway, they look amazing!

Hey San. You have a good eye! That plate is one of a kind. Here is a pic of the back of it.

:-)

As far as the cookies - my first look like Monique and then I spread the next batch with filling more to the outside edge - both are good - both came off the pan fine and they are in the freezer (after Will scarfed up 3 of them...)

You should give it another go Shaun! I agree - coffeecake. Scott said donut.

I hope to make more as I know they will be popular with both sides of the family.

Maggie,that's true I was!! But after the first test batch was done, I thought maybe they needed a tad more filling. So I made the little indent a little bigger to hold more filling. But those suckers spread out and were all stuck together on the cookie sheets.....the heavy filling falling out... oh it was a mess. I actually threw out 2 cookie sheets full of them. I couldnt get them off without them crumbling to pieces.

Now that I know how this cookie spreads out, I'm going to make them again and keep the cookie a little thicker in the middle to hold the filling better.

OH also, Sherry, after I mixed up all the ingredients, I found the dough too goopy to actually roll into a ball so I had to use a little mini scoop to get the dough out and onto the cookie sheets. Did I need more flour?

Stacy, look at Will! What a great gift from him. You'll treasure that plate for years and years and forever!

Shaun, Perhaps it's climate? I am not sure. I have never had the dough too wet to roll into balls.
The other thing, did you let them cool completely before trying to remove from cookie sheets? I posted above that if you don't, the heavy centers fall through.
When I made them this year, I made them with not as deep an indent and just piled the filling high, and they came out looking like Monique's.
Be sure to try them again.
Stacy, I also loved that plate. How special that your little cutie made it for you!
Sherry, (who is trying to "invent" a cookie that is shortbread on the bottom, homemade caramel on top of that, chopped pecans on top of the caramel, and dark chocolate drizzled over the top. The shortbread is made and ready to bake, but it's time for a nap.)

Stacy,

They look wonderful! My first batch is in the oven right now. I have my fingers crossed.

Question for you--do you pack the brown sugar when measuring for this recipe, or leave it loose?

Boy, they smell so good!

Thank you,

Sharon S.

Yum - I just made these - they're great! Thanks, Sheshe!