Since I posted a picture on the "Wine Festival" thread, a couple of people have asked for the recipe for the blue cheese and rosemary wafers I made for supper after all the wine drinking was finished, LOL.

This recipe started as a cookie, and that didn't sound good at all, so I just left out the sugar and got a savory wafer/cracker type snack instead. I also left out the cranberries because I didn't have any, but I think they'd be really good in these. Elery loved them, because he loves blue cheese.

I don't like blue cheese but these were not bad, they weren't really "strong" in flavor. I think when I make them again I might add a bit more blue cheese or a stronger variety, just to bump up that flavor.

The recipe came to me from the Wisconsin Dairy Marketing Board.

ROSEMARY BLUE CHEESE ICE BOX COOKIES


Category: Dessert

Number of Servings: 4 dozen


Ingredients:

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.

Cooking Directions:

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.

Without the sugar these are a nice savory accompaniment to soup, which is how we had them. The texture is much like a shortbread cookie, and I'm considering adding cracked black pepper next time, or maybe rolling the edges in something besides nuts, maybe some mixture with coarsely cracked pepper.

Annie