Savory Cheese Cookies

One of my favorite food blogs is Kayotic Kitchen. Kay's a Dutch cook/photographer extraordinaire. I've used her site a lot as I'm learned to make my hubby's favorite foods from home. I spent some time looking over old posts while we were in Holland for Christmas and found this one for Savory Cheese Cookies. I had never heard of savory cookies before, so I was quite intrigued. I couldn't wait to put it on the menu plan for this week. These cookies have rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes (one of my favorite foods!) and Parmesan cheese. Yum!

Be sure to check Kay's site at the link above for her beautiful step-by-step instructions, but if you want a quick recipe, here you go:

Savory Cheese Cookies

courtesy of Kayotic Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup Parmesan, grated (100 gr)
1 stick salted, cold butter, diced (roughly 120 grams)
Rosemary, minced or dried (Kay uses a sprig, I used about 1/2 teaspoon dried)
2 or 3 sun-dried tomatoes (on oil), minced finely
Dash cayenne (I used paprika)
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Combine flour, cheese, butter, rosemary, cayenne and salt.
2. Pulsate a few times until the dough forms a ball, take it out of the food processor and place it on your kitchen counter or cutting board.
3. Add the minced sun-dried tomatoes and knead until it’s a supple dough. Shape the dough into a log and place it on top of a piece of foil or wax paper. Wrap tightly.
4. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 400F (200c). Use a really sharp knife and slice the dough in fairly thin slices. Don’t be fussy about it -they’re home made cookies and there’s simply no need for them to be absolutely, perfectly round! Part of their charm is the imperfection and the huge amounts of love you put into making them! Now press a single rosemary leaf in a few cookies.
6. Bake the cookies for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

Jen's thoughts:

Other than substituting dried rosemary for a sprig of fresh and Spanish paprika for cayenne (because I didn't have any), I followed this recipe pretty closely. The only adjustment I had to make was that I added about a tablespoon of olive oil because I buy sun-dried tomatoes in a bag (no oil) from our super cool farmer's market-y type place. The mixture doesn't really turn into a dough without the oil.

My cookies ended up like squares because I am not a good roller. Shaping was easier for me. Also, my cookies are pretty small, which is how I usually make them. That way I can eat more!