OK, another one of my more odd ball recipes. And I won’t lie to you: it was precipidated by the fact that I had a couple of pear-shaped cookie cutters. I know, rather silly. And then I found this interesting sounding Bourbon Pear Onion Jam from Stonewall Kitchen so these savory linzer cookies were born. They match well with cheese and wine or beer. They might not be for everyone, but they turned out quite nice, so I am pleased.
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
zest of one lemon
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
olive oil to brush on tops of top cookies (optional)
sea salt for sprinkling
1/2 cup Bourbon Pear Onion Jam
You will also need two cookie cutters — one larger for the bottoms and one smaller, to cut the whole in the middle.
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
In a bowl, whisk butter and lemon zest. Add the egg yolk and whisk until it is smooth. Now, add the heavy cream and whisk again. In a separate bowl, add flour, cheese, rosemary and salt and mix them.
Pour the flour mix in the butter mix 1/4 cup at a time and keep whisking. Continue until all the dry and wet ingredients are properly combined. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Give it one last knead before making the cookies. Roll each portion to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with the larger cutter. Cut centers out of half of cookies with a smaller cutter. Make sure that you have an even number of solid and cut out cookies. For the “top” ones (the ones with the holes in the center, brush with a very light coating of olive oil and sprinkle with just a little bit of seas salt. Bake for 12-14 minutes (depending on size and thickness), until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.
Spread solid cookies with the jam and then sandwich with a cut out cookie. Serve with wine and cheese.
