It's Pizzelle and Biscotti season ???
Lou

Um AnnT just did a Cheddar cookie/cracker on her blog..

I was thinking of a cheese straw, too. My mother made these for many years, and it's been ages since I made them, but now that you mention it, I think I'll make a batch.

1-1/2 c flour
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t cayenne
3/4 cup butter
1 t Worcestershire
3/4 grated sharp cheddar
cold water.

Sift dry ingredients, and cut in butter. Add cheese and Worcestershire. Add enough water to hold ingredients together. Put in cookie press and press out in straws on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Yield: 50 to 75 straws.

If I made them, I'd definitely choose the Marsala over the red wine, but I agree Linda, that the recipe doesn't sound like the finished product would be very highly flavored.

I just made a big batch of mixed shortbread cookies for my husband to take to a Barbershop competition (he sings) for his pals. I like them a lot, because they're rich, not too sweet, and take well to additions.

I made several batches of basic shortbread cookies. To some I added ground pecans (and then rolled them in more), to some, crushed granola. Some I topped by pushing a few chocolate chips into the cut cookie. One batch, I substituted brown sugar for the powdered, and it was quite tasty. On other occasions, I have made them with black pepper, crushed candy canes, toasted coconut, a jam "thumbprint", chopped dried fruits, and a variety of flavorings substituted for the vanilla.

I love these cookies, because I cut them small, and can indulge with one or two along a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea without feeling "oogy" from too much sugar.

Along the line of "savory"...I do have a recipe in one of my Indian cook books for a savory, black pepper cracker...if the idea strikes anyone's fancy, I will type it out.

I'm thinking about the cheddar thumbprint cookies with habanero gold jelly. Love 'em.

jude

Don't mean to be fussy but....
I'm not looking for a cracker...but more fo a "sugar cookie" without the sugar...small and crisp. And I'm not looking for cheese straws, not pizzelles nor a savory biscotti ( i have a few recipes for them.
I want a cookie!
I may have to buy a bunch of butter and just have at the experimenting.
But....what role does sugar play in texture?...I know!
Maybe I should try messing with a pie crust sort of recipe, with leavening and flavorings...
I guess the squirrels will eat my mistakes.

I used to make Caraway and Rose Cookies all the time and then completely forgot about them. I just hunted down the recipe, and if it sounds like something you're looking for, give a holler and I'll type it out. Lovely cookies for dunking in tea.

I'm hollering!!!!

Try the cheese straw recipe and just make small cookies. You may need to adjust the baking time.

Since you are a blue cheese fan, I have made these a couple of times, courtesy of the eatwisconsincheese.com people. My boss loves them.

Rosemary Blue Cheese Ice Box Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces Blue cheese,* softened
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dried cranberries, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups nuts (pecans or walnuts), chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, leaves only
White or natural sanding (coarse) sugar

*Domestic Blue cheese gives cookies a clean flavor, color and texture. Use less flour with a Stilton-style cheese and more flour with a French-style Roquefort.

Whisk together flour, cornstarch and salt in a bowl; set aside. Cream together Blue cheese and butter with an electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly add flour mixture to butter and cheese mixture; beat to combine. Add cranberries and mix on low just until evenly dispersed.

Divide the dough into two pieces and use parchment paper or plastic wrap to form the dough into two 1 1/2-inch diameter round or square logs. Set out two fresh pieces of plastic wrap and sprinkle the chopped nuts evenly over both. Roll the logs of dough in nuts until covered. Tightly wrap and seal the logs; refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours).

Preheat oven to 325°F. Working with one log at a time, unwrap and slice logs into 1/4-inch discs. Place 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Gently press about 3 small rosemary leaves on each cookie. Sprinkle each cookie with sanding sugar.

Bake on a middle rack until bottoms begin to brown and tops just begin to turn from pale to golden; 12 to 18 minutes. Cool on sheets 1 to 2 minutes before removing cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

I still think the cheese thumbprints are cookies, though...

Annie

Here's another one with blue cheese that might be the type you're looking for. There's no sugar in them but the dates add the sweetness.

SAVORY DATE RUGELACH Â makes 4 dozen

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups walnuts, divided
4 oz. blue cheese, cut into cubes
48 pitted dates (about 12 oz.)
1 large egg white
1 tsp. water

Dough:
In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Stir in flour and salt just until blended (or use mixer on low speed). Divide dough into 4 equal pieces; flatten each into a disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Filling:
In food processor with knife blade attached, pulse 1/2 cup walnuts until finely chopped; reserve in small bowl. In same food processor, pulse blue cheese and remaining 1 cup of walnuts 7 to 8 times or until a coarse mixture forms.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large cookie sheets with foil; grease foil.

On floured surface with floured rolling pin, roll 1 disk of dough into a 10-inch round. Cut into 12 equal wedges. Beginning 1 inch from outside edge, sprinkle 1/2 cup blue cheese mixture in 2 Âinch wide ring on dough, leaving dough exposed in center. Place one whole date crosswise on wide end of each wedge. Starting at wide end, roll up each wedge, jelly-roll fashion.

Place rugelach, 1 inch apart, on cookie sheets, point side down. Repeat with remaining four dough disks. In small bowl, beat egg white and water. Brush rolls with egg white and sprinkle with reserved walnuts.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden, rotating sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through baking. Let stand for a minute or two and then transfer to wire racks to cool. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature up to 3 days.

To make ahead: Arrange unbaked rugelach in single layer in jelly roll pan; cover and freeze until firm. Remove from pan and place in freezer containers with waxed paper in between each layer. Seal and freeze up to 3 months. About 45 minutes before serving, preheat oven to 350. Line 2 large cookie sheets with foil; grease foil. Arrange frozen rugelach on prepared cookie sheets and bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden.

That's what I am looking for...I think!!
Thanks!!

It took me a while to find it, because the recipe is in a book called Gardening with Herbs for Flavor and Fragrance, and my husband decided he should remove it from the cookbook shelf and put it with the gardening books. Part of his endless, hopeless campaign to improve me.

Anyway, while I was looking for it, I found one online for Rosemary Butter Cookies that I've linked below. Not T&T by me, but it's a Martha Stewart recipe, and the photos are beautiful. The blogger who posted it says they're divine, and I'm trying them in the next couple of days. Rosemary plus sweet sounds good to me.

This is the recipe I've made. It's very old and just needs some common sense to update it. It's adapted from an 1830 book called Directions for Cookery by Miss Shapleigh, no first name. How ladylike is that?

CARAWAY AND ROSE COOKIES

1/2 pound of butter
1/2 pound of fine sugar
1/2 of a grated nutmeg
1 pound of sifted flour (4 cups)
3 tablespoons of caraway seed
2 tablespoons of rose water

Rub the butter into the sugar and flour, add nutmeg, caraway seeds, and rose water. Moisten to a stiff dough with water. Let it stand, covered, for several hours, then roll out into a sheet 1/4 of an inch thick. Cut with a cookie cutter, lay in a well-buttered pan, and bake in a moderate oven until it is light brown in color.

I think I made it easier by rolling the dough into a log and cutting slices off it, but it's been a while. And use parchment, obviously. But the caraway and rose water make for a flavor that isn't like any other cookies I've tasted.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rosemary Butter Cookies

rachelellen... could you please share your shortbread cookie recipe?? Those are my absolute favorites and I would love to have a tried and true recipe.

Thanks!

A few years ago, Gourmet had several cookies recipes to pair with wine. I haven't made them, but maybe they're what you're looking for.

Vanilla Bean Thins
From Gourmet Magazine, Dec 2002

Makes about 4 dozen cookies  good with ice wine

1 fresh (moist) vanilla bean, split lengthwise
¾ C confectioners sugar
1 ¾ C flour
½ t. salt
½ t. baking powder
1 stick + 5T. unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg yolk

Make vanilla sugar:
Scrape vanilla seeds from pod with tip of a knife into confectioners sugar. Halve pods crosswise and bury in sugar. Cover tightly & let stand at least 24 hours & up to 1 month.

Make cookies:
Discard pods & transfer vanilla sugar to a food processor. Add flour, salt, & baking powder & pulse to combine. Add butter & pulse just until mixture is in pea-size lumps. Add yolk & pulse just until a dough forms.

Gather dough into 2 balls, then flatten into 2 (5") disks & chill, each disk wrapped well in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325F.

Roll out 1 disk (keep the other chilled) to less than 1/8" thick on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Cut out shapes with floured 2" cookie cutter & chill scraps. Arrange cookies ½" apart on a buttered large baking sheet. Make more cookies with remaining dough, rerolling scraps (but only once).

Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.