Well, whew! I’m back. Yeah, I know my one fan will be
happy about that! I got the gunge that’s going around. I got a mild case of it
and it still knocked me for a loop! But I’m feeling better. I’m feeling good
enough to bake cookies so things are definitely on the up-swing.
Okay, I LOVE goat cheese. Just love it. I know a lot of
people think they don’t like it, but think of it like cream cheese and I’m
hoping I can change your mind with these amazing cookies!
What happened is this : our local market bought too much
goat cheese, so they were selling it out at one third the price. Oh yeah! Goat
cheese heaven! And special thanks to my daughter who alerted me to this. As a
result of all this goat cheesiness, I used La Bonne Vie brand.
Thumb print cookies are also wonderful. This recipe from Land-o’-Lakes is my
absolute favorite.
So I just changed it up a little. Made it more goat
cheese friendly! If you can’t find goat cheese, then go ahead and replace it with cream
cheese if you must, but I assure you, the tang of goat cheese is fabulous!
Cookies
:
½ C
Butter, softened
½ C
soft goat cheese (I used Cranberry-cinnamon)
2/3
C granulated sugar
½ t
vanilla extract
1 C
whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
1 C
almond meal (Ground almonds)
Print
filling :
¼ C
soft goat cheese (Again with the cranberry-cinnamon)
2
T jam (I used black currant)
Glaze
:
¼ C
powdered sugar
½ t
triple sec (or vanilla extract)
Water
(if needed)
Combine
softened butter and goat cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Combine A.P. flour and
almond meal, add to butter mixture. Mix until creamy. Cover and refrigerate for
1 hour. This time is really needed
because the dough is very soft.
While
the dough is resting, Stir the ¼ C goat cheese and put it into a sandwich bag
and put it in the refrigerator.
Measure
out the jam into a small cup and stir it to soften a bit.
Stir
the Triple Sec into the powdered sugar, add water if necessary to make a thin
glaze. Put this into a sandwich bag and set aside.
When
your hour is up, heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Roll the dough into 1” balls
and place about 2 inches across on an ungreased baking sheet. Use your thumb to
make an imprint in each ball. You can use the back of a spoon. I found that my
thumb, damp, worked best. The cookies may crack a bit around the edges.
Clip
the corner off the bag with the cranberry-cinnamon goat cheese and squeeze
equal amounts into each thumb print. You may have to pull or cut off the goat
cheese blob.
When
all the cookies are full, top the goat cheese with ¼ t of the jam.
Bake
in the middle of the oven for about 14-18 minutes or until golden brown around
the edges. Let cool on pan for about a minute, then remove to a cooling rack to
cool completely.
Clip
the corner out of the glaze bag and drizzle glaze over cooled cookies.
Enjoy!
I did some of the cookies with just the cheese and some with just the jam, and some with both. The cookies with both were the absolute best!
Peace!
