I have been wanting to make this recipe for a very long time.  We’ve lived in Nashville for 9 years.  Probably year 3, I cut this recipe out of the Tennessean.  About year 5 ago, a friend brought me a jar of pepper jelly.  Well, yesterday and today, I finally did it.  

The recipe was put into the paper by the Nashville Jam Company.  I’m not going to say they lied a little, but there is no way you can get 3-4 dozen cookies 1” thick X 3” round out of this recipe.  I got 44 cookies about 1 1/4” in diameter and 1/4” thick.  I’d recommend you make a dozen to 1 1/2 dozen at most.  They want you to buy them there.  Also I think I will play with the flour to ground pecan ratio.  For some reason the cookie tastes floury.  Maybe 1 C pecans ground and 1 C flour.  

At 3 dozen the cookies are 4 WW pts.  That would double at 1 1/2 dozen.  An iced sugar cookie is 9, so cookies are not very WW friendly.

Ingredients:

2 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese, at room temperature

8 T unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1/2 C finely ground pecans

1/4 t salt

1 t smoked paprika

Pepper Jelly

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients and sweet aside.
2. In a food processor, cream the butter and cheese until well combined.
3. Pulse the dry ingredients into the cheese mixture forming a ball.  Wrap in plastic and chill for several hours. (I did it overnight.)
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Roll dough into 8 oz. balls about the size of ping-pong balls.  Place them 1 1/2” apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a sill pad.  
6. Bake for about 8 minutes until the dough begins to spread just a tad.  
7. Remove from the oven and , using a small circular object such as the bottom of a spice bottle, press the center of each ball leaving a 1/2” indentation.  the cookies should flatten to about 1” think and about 3” in diameter.  Fill the indentation with up to a teaspoon of pepper jelly.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate cookie sheet 180 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned. (Sometimes this takes up to 30 minutes due to climate.  
9. Cool on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes before transferring to wire rack to completely cool.  
10. Finish with a small sprinkle of smoked paprika.