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Ingredients, from left to right: blue cheese, butter, flour, fig jam and black pepper.
Use a good, firm blue cheese -- nothing too creamy, or the dough will be sticky.
Consulting about cookie cutter sizes.
Checking to make sure the dough is just coming together in a ball.
It's essentially a shortbread dough, but with cheese!
If you're nervous, you can chill the dough for a little bit before rolling it out.
You can use your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon, like we did, to create little troughs for the jam.
1/4 teaspoon is just right -- otherwise, you risk spillover!
Isn't Amanda's Christmas tree pretty?
Author Notes: If you are like me, you always offer to bring something when invited to someone’s house. I mean the offer, I always love an opportunity to cook for people, but sometimes it’s hard to come up with a quick idea on the fly. And when it’s one of those roaming parties – not a seated affair – choosing a dish that doesn’t have to be kept hot or cold or require and special equipment adds to the challenge. I tend to fall back on the same recipes, but I recently wanted to add one to my repertoire – after all, it gets to be the same people at parties, right? These little Fig and Blue Cheese bites are easy but very elegant, and the surprising tart and tangy with sweet combination is a real treat. - TheRunawaySpoon
—TheRunawaySpoon
Food52 Review: These delicate, crumbly little thumbprints are the perfect combination of sweet and savory, as their names suggests -- they're like a great cheese plate all wrapped into one crunchy little morsel. TheRunawaySpoon's simple food processor dough yields tender, buttery coins flecked with blue cheese and black pepper. A good quality fig jam is crucial here; if you can't find it, quince or pear jam would also work well. - A&M —The Editors
Makes: about 3 dozen
Ingredients
-
1
cup all-purpose flour
-
1/2
cup butter, room temperature
-
4
ounces blue cheese, crumbled
-
Ground black pepper
-
Fig preserves, about 3 Tablespoons
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 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. 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. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Cut rounds out of the dough with a floured 1-inch cutter and transfer the rounds to the parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Using the back or a round half-teaspoon measure or your knuckle, 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 the savories for 10 – 14 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’ll find fig preserves at the grocery – it may be shelved with the “fancy” jams and jellies. You can make these a day ahead and keep them in two layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container.
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211 Reviews
I always use Maytag blue cheese but have tried Stilton with same success. You don’t want a cheese that’s too crumbly. Definitely do not use blue cheese crumbles. Maytag or Stilton makes these more $$$ but they’re worth it. They vanish.
Some notes:
- I always make a double batch, because I roll out to 1/4 inch thick, not 1/8 inch and also make them about 1-1/2 inches, wide not 1 inch. I get just over 2 dozen doing this double batch and wider cut.
- I use 1/4 inch roll out because I found that at 1/8 thick, the back of the 1/4 measuring teaspoon, which I use to make the well for the jam, tore through to the bottom of the dough, leaving little or nothing between the dough and baking sheet.
- Rolling out: Very lightly flour the work surface. I put a piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough. The plastic wrap sheet(s) need to be big enough to handle the size when the dough is rolled out, so if your roll of plastic wrap is not wide enough, you might need two slightly overlap two sheets of plastic wrap to one another.
- Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick
- I don’t have cookie cutters. I use the mouth of a jar or juice glass about 1-1/2 inches wide to cut circles in the dough. Set each circle on baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper.
- Use the back (rounded side) of a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon to gently press an indent into each round. Don’t press too hard, you need some dough between the jam and the baking sheet. If the dough seems to get sticky, put it back in the fridge for 20 minutes. Or wet the back of the measuring spoon with plain water before pressing it into the dough.
- Make indents in all your rounds, then go back and fill them:
Use the same measuring spoon or whatever, and tuck some fig jam into the well. It’s fine if it overspills a little. The great thing is that you can use pretty much any jam that complements your meal: cranberry confit for winter holidays? Apricot or strawberry for springtime? Etc. One caution: the jam should not have huge hunks of fig or whatever fruit because they’ll be too big to fit into the wells. If the jam does have big hunks, allow time to fish them out of the jar and chop them smaller before stuffing them into the crackers.
- Bake only until bottoms are golden brown. The tops may not be golden brown and that’s OK. Keep lifting up a couple crackers and checking the color of the bottom. If you are baking more than 1 sheet, rotate the sheets on the oven shelves half-way through.
- The baking time will be a few minutes longer if you cut them 1/4 inch thick (vs 1/8 thick mentioned in the recipe).
They are delicious!