Recipe #24: Goat Cheese and Chive Cookies

Every Christmas my Nana’s signature holiday baked goods would find their way to us: white chocolate pretzel peanut clusters and cheese biscuits. After she passed away, my mom continued her tradition of the cheese biscuits: a simple baked mixture of cheddar cheese and flour.

I have yet to make these myself (and as I write this post I am reminded I should ask my mom for the recipe) but it was only natural I would try some of the savory cheese cookie recipes in Dorie’s Cookies.

First up: the Goat Cheese Chive Cookies!

Similar to many of her recipes that have been baked in my kitchen, the ingredients and steps were simple. The best part of making the cookies was combining baking tricks I learned from my mom with Dorie’s. We never had round cookie rings, however one of our family’s favorite Christmas cookie was a cookie sandwich made up of cookies shaped in perfect two-bite sized circles. Instead, my mom turned to the perfect substitute: liquor glasses that had come into our belonging from my grandmother. While I do have a circular cookie cutter, it is about twice the size Dorie calls for. I looked around my apartment and found the perfect family influenced substitute: a whisky tasting glass from a craft distillery. Not only did it produce the perfect size biscuits, but the stem made for easy handling.

While the baking process went smoothly and they were flaky and delicious when they came out of the oven, my handling of them made them less appetizing compared to other cookies I have baked. Dorie strongly recommends that they are served right after baking, and if you bake them a day ahead, one should heat them up before serving. I made mine on a Tuesday, froze them and brought them with me on a trip with Patrick’s family 5 days later. They still tasted good the first day, but they went stale pretty quickly. We did heat a couple up at one point, and they returned to their freshness, but when served alongside the chocolate chip cookies, whose quality lasted longer, it was clear the chocolate chips were a favorite.

I may return to these, or I may move on to a different cookie in her arsenal. There is a full book of them so I won’t have a hard time finding another.