Heidi Swanson's Swedish Rye Cut-Out Cookies

Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks gives classic cut-out cookies a rye flour and cream cheese dough (and a lot more personality). 

Powder-kissed and pretty, these Swedish Rye Cookies are perfect for holiday cookie enthusiasts who are after a not-too-sweet, shortbread-style butter cookie. I make them with a blend of rye and whole-wheat pastry flours, and also break with tradition when it comes adding my secret ingredient. Because I love the taste of toasted rye bread slathered with cream cheese, I use a butter/cream cheese combination for the dough—instead of only butter. 

I suspect you could experiment with other flours in place of the rye and expect good results—barley or oat flours might work well. I also got to thinking about doing a savory version of this cookie with herbs and grated cheese in place of most or all of the sugar—turning it into a buttery rye cream-cheese herb cracker...

Swedish Rye Cookies 

Makes 12 small cookies 

1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup fine grain natural cane sugar, sifted
Large grain sugar (for sprinkling)
Organic powdered sugar (for snow)

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photo by Heidi Swanson