Blue Cheese Cookies?!

I know, I know---I sort of cringed when I saw the name of this recipe.
'Blue cheese' and 'cookie' have never been used in the same sentence before,
at least not in JaneWorld. And they should not.

Except for these flavorful morsels.
These little rounds would make a great cocktail...um, cookie?
They are savory, I promise, and would complement the taste of
just about any mixed drink or beer very well.

But no matter what else you choose to serve with these cookies,
they are a great appetizer and are very easy and quick to throw together.

How can they be quick, you ask, when they need to be rolled and cut out?

I'm so happy that you asked. These can be rapidly rolling-pinned (I think I just
coined another JaneWorld vocabulary word here) and cut out with a biscuit cutter or drinking glass, if need be; the beautiful thing is that they don't need to be perfect because
they rely on a great blue-cheese taste. And everyone knows that at parties,
people are not as picky, perhaps because of the alcohol, but at any rate, if
they're not precisely even or not exactly round, who cares?
Not all those half-soused guests of yours. They're just thrilled to get something
to gobble up so the booze doesn't go to their head too fast.

I threw about half the batch into a ziploc bag and bunged it into the
freezer so that at those holiday gatherings I'll have something to grab and share
when I've forgotten to prepare something, as I often do.

Blue Cheese Cookies
(adapted from pastry studio)

Ingredients:

6 oz blue cheese, softened
4 oz butter, softened
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup flour

Method:

Blend blue cheese, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor until creamy. Add flour and pulse until mixture just starts to come together and forms a clump. Gather dough and place on a piece of waxed paper. Flatten into a disk and place another piece of waxed paper over the top. Roll out the dough between the two sheets of waxed paper to about 1/4 inch thickness. Slide the dough, still between the paper, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator and gently lift off the top sheet of waxed paper. Use a 2 inch cookie cutter or a sharp knife to cut out cookies. Transfer to the baking sheets. You want the dough to remain cold, so work quickly.

Bake for about 15-18 minutes* or until the edges just start to turn golden, rotating baking pans halfway through.** Cool on a wire rack. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.


I came up 2 oz. short on the blue cheese (forgot the golden rule of double-checking the recipe and noting the amounts needed before going to the grocery store) so made up the difference with already shredded Colby-Jack cheese. This gave the cookies miniscule orange flecks that were quite attractive but didn't really show up after baking.






* Mine were done just before 15 minutes had elapsed so watch them carefully.

**I did not bother with rotating pans, etc. I just baked them one sheet at a time and they came out fine.