Baaah can you beeelieeeeeve how fast this year has flown?? It sure has for me, I can’t believe tomorrow is Christmas eve! I’ve just finished prepping for tomorrows big breakfast with my side of the family and I cannot wait for the morning and enjoying the fruits of my labors. We have a simple but delicious menu for tomorrow, and I am excited to share it with you soon! Until then, these cookies will have to suffice.

This recipe also comes from Heidi Swanson’s X-mas Cookie list(can you tell I’m obsessed?)  I only slightly tweaked them by adding a little extra rosemary, a little less pine nuts and orange zest in place of lemon. These cookies are not too sweet and incredibly tasty. Like always, I am loving the addition of rosemary!:)

I hope you all have an absolutely lovely Christmas!

Ingredients

2 cups white whole-wheat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
scant teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar (i used evaporated cane juice)
zest of one orange
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted and loosely chopped
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Combine flour and salt in a small bowl and whisk together.

In a separate large bowl cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and orange zest and mix again, then add the flour mixture, nuts, and rosemary and mix until the dough goes just past the crumbly stage, and begins to really clump together (you don’t want to over mix, but under mixing will make the dough seem a bit dry, which can make it difficult to handle). Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough just once or twice to bring it together, then divide it into a ball and flatten into a disk 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut into whatever shapes you desire, and place on the prepared baking sheet. You can chill the dough in the freezer for another 10 minutes to help the cookies hold their shape – but you don’t have to. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies are beginning to brown on the bottom. The baking time will vary depending on the size of the cookies, taking less time for smaller cookies.

Yields about 2 dozen small cookies

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks