Spicy Cheddar Thumbprints

Directions

1. Cream together cheese and butter. Add flour and beat until the mixture forms a ball. Remove from mixing bowl and form dough into a disk. Chill overnight. (Or freeze for an hour.)
2. Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment or Silpat sheets. Put egg white, beaten, in one bowl and pecans in another bowl.
3. Remove dough from the refrigerator and break off 1 teaspoon sized pieces and form into little balls. Chill for two hours.
4. Dip the cookie ball first into the egg white and then into the pecans and then place them about 1" apart on the baking sheet.
5. Slide the baking sheets into the oven for five minutes, remove them from the oven and poke a little indentation into each cookie with the end of a wooden spoon or a small dowel. Put a tiny spoonful of the jelly in the indentation.
6. Return the cookies back to the oven and bake until the tops are very lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
7. Cool on the sheet on a rack. These cookies will keep for three days, if they last that long. Store them in layers between wax paper. I package them in stacks in cello bags and tie with a holiday ribbon, attaching the recipe as a gift card.