Peppermint Candy Cookies

The Dough:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, soft
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 teas vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla together until fluffy. Add the flour and walnuts and blend to form a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Candy Mixture for Garnish:
1/4 lb. peppermint candy (crushed fine)
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
In a small bowl combine both ingredients. Set aside. Three tablespoons of this mixture is used in the filling below, and the remainder is used to garnish the cookies
The Filling:
2 Tablespoons of cream cheese, soft
1 teas milk
1 drop of red food coloring
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons of candy mixture (see above)
In a bowl, blend together the cream cheese, milk, food coloring, and the confectioners sugar until smooth. Blend in the 3 tablespoons candy mixture.
Remove dough from fridge and for each cookie pinch off a rounded teaspoon of the dough. Form into a ball and shape the dough around you thumb to make a little compartment in the middle. Place about 1/4 teaspoon of the cream cheese filling in the depression. Pinch the dough back together and roll it back into a ball. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and filling. Place the balls on a nonstick cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not brown. Remove the cookies to a cooling rack. To garnish, roll the cooled cookies in the remaining candy mixture. These are so so good! and pretty!