Fig + Blue Cheese Thumbprint Cookies

You know when you taste something that’s everything you hope it will be, and then some? I'm talking sweet, savory, salty, rich, buttery, and delicious, all in one bite. Well, these cookies (or crackers, depending on how you look at it) are just that.

They taste like homemade, grown-up Cheez-Its, that somehow got dunked in delicious sweet jam. Kind of like a stoner-version of a fancy cheese plate, all in one bite. Let’s just say that Jon ate 6 of these one morning for breakfast with his coffee, and they’d be equally as good paired with beer, wine, or pretty much any kind of booze in between.

Basically what I’m telling you is that you need these cookie/crackers in your life, and what better time to try them than during the holidays? They're the perfect cocktail party snack, easy to hold and eat in one hand, while balancing a drink in the other. Also, I need to give a nod to one of my all-time favorite food websites, Food52, for the recipe. I tweaked the original recipe ever so slightly, but not enough to take credit for it as one of my own. 

Fig + Blue Cheese Thumbprint Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz good-quality, firm blue cheese, crumbled (I used Great Hill Blue)
¼ to ½ tsp fresh-ground black pepper
3 TB fig preserves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the flour, butter, blue cheese and black pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the dough just comes together and starts to form a ball.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to pull the dough together. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 10 minutes to firm up slightly.

Unwrap dough and roll out on a lightly-floured surface to 1/4 inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Cut rounds out of the dough with a floured 2-inch cutter and transfer the rounds to the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Using the back of a round half-teaspoon measure, make an indentation in the top of each dough round. Spoon about ¼ teaspoon of fig preserves into each indentation, using your finger to push the preserves as best as possible into the indentations.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the preserves are bubbling and the pastry is light golden on the bottom.

Let cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes, the remove to a wire rack to cool. You can make these a day ahead and keep them in two layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container.

Do you love to combine sweet and savory flavors as much as I do? Leave your favorite pairing in the comments!
Cheers! Alex