Blue cheese isn’t for everyone, I get it! But hear me out for a second, if ever there was going to be a blue cheese *something* to convert you non-believers, these savouries are arguably it. They're the gateway drug to other harder forms of blue cheese enjoyment. For all of you who know you like blue cheese already, you're going to LOVE these.
The delightful little disks are salty and buttery, with just a smidgen of sweetness. Think, blue cheese shortbread cookies, with a little dollop of sweet fig jam to mellow and smooth out the salty cheese flavour. Mmm they’re divine.
These mild cookies, if you can call them that, are super easy to whip up and are a perfect addition to any cheese board or holiday spread. I like to give them away as gifts, but be sure not to put them in the cookie tin with the other cookies, they’re, shall we say, fragrant.
Notes – one of those triangle packages of blue cheese you see in the grocery store is 125 grams, which is nearly 4 oz, so I generally use one of them for this recipe, minus a little that gets in my mouth.
This recipe makes about 45- 50 savouries.
A shot glass works nicely as a cookie cutter.
Fig & Blue Cheese Savouries
1 cup all-purpose flour
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
Freshly ground black pepper
About 3 tablespoons fig preserves
Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place the flour, butter, blue cheese, and a few grinds of black pepper in the bowl of a food processor and process until the dough just comes together and starts to form a ball.
Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to pull it together. Then roll out to a 1/8-inch-thick circle with a floured rolling pin. Cut rounds out of the dough with a floured 1-inch round cutter and transfer to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Reroll the scraps (no more than once) and cut more rounds.
Using the back of a rounded 1/2-teaspoon measure or your knuckle, make an indentation in the center of each dough round. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon of the fig preserves into each indentation, using your finger to push the preserves as best as possible into the indentation.
Bake the savouries until the preserves are bubbling and the pastry is light golden on the bottom, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.