Recipe: Drink Coffee's Pineapple Pecan Cookies with Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing

PINEAPPLE PECAN COOKIES

"Rachel Haas, owner, sent this recipe and wrote: "The Pineapple Pecan Cookie is actually one of those old family hand-me-downs. I had to call my grandmother and ask permission for it to be published. She is just tickled pink to think that her mother's recipe is so popular! She actually said, 'Well, of course. Give it to them! I don't have a patent on it!'"

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned crushed pineapple, drain and reserve liquid to use in frosting
Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and pecans.

In another bowl, using an electric or hand-held mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add egg and vanilla beating until well combined.

Mix in dry ingredients. Add drained pineapple. Drop 1-inch portions of dough onto greased cookie sheets spacing them about 2-inches apart.

Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are golden. Remove from oven and let cool 1 minute and then transfer to a cooling rack.

When completely cooled, place a mounded circle of Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing in center of each cookie.

PINEAPPLE CREAM CHEESE ICING

1/2 (1 stick) cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
About 1 to 2 teaspoons reserved pineapple juice

Pineapple cream cheese frosting: very smooth. Beat in cream cheese until well combined. Add sugar until frosting is smooth. Pour in pineapple juice. If a softer, more glaze-like frosting is desired, add more pineapple juice.

Makes about 2 dozen
Source: Drink Coffee, 415 Bay Shore Drive, Sister Bay in Milwaukee Journal Sentinal You Asked For It Column