Crescent Jam and Cheese Cookies

I am not what you classify “an adventurous person”.  Not by any means.  My bucket list does not include sky-diving, white water rafting or even rock climbing.  Some may call me boring, I prefer the term careful.

I do like excitement, it’s just that my idea of excitement is finding a new recipe to try.  I can’t remember how I stumbled across the following recipe but what ensued was nothing short of exciting. “What came out of the oven was a veritable dream, a cross between a croissant and rugelach with the kind of pillowy flaky layers pastry chefs work tirelessly to achieve through focused applications of regimented amounts of butter to floury doughs.” (Deb, smittenkitchen.com-I really just couldn’t say it better myself)  It was the kind of cookie that was impossible to eat just one of. So good, that only 3 made it to morning and I already have more dough in the refrigerator to make more today.

Cream the butter

Press farmers cheese through a sieve

Add sour cream and vanilla

Beat in flour

Roll out dough and cut into 3 inch squares

Add jam

and roll into little crescents

Brush with milk

Bake, cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar

Aren’t they beautiful?!  ok…just one more…

Crescent Jam and Cheese Cookies

Original recipe from The Gourmet Cookie Book, I adapted it from smittenkitchen.com

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
7.5 ounces farmers cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Jam or preserves (about 1/3 cup)
Milk (for brushing on cookies)
Powdered Sugar (for dusting)

Directions:

1. Whisk or sift together flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.

3. Force cheese through a sieve right onto creamed butter and stir it in. (this took me about 20-30 minutes, I guess I’m sieve-challenged as well)

4. Add the sour cream and vanilla and combine the mixture well.

5. Gradually blend flour into the cheese mixture. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill it for at least 3 hours.

6. Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll one-fourth of the dough out very thinly on a lightly floured surface and chill the remaining dough until it is to be used. Cut the dough into 3-inch squares.

7. Put about 1/2 teaspoon jam or preserves in the center of each square. Fold the dough in half on the diagonal, pressing down to seal the two sides around the jam. Roll the triangle into crescents, starting at the wide end.

8. Arrange crescents on a baking sheet (they won’t expand terribly much, so just an inch or so between them is fine), brush them lightly with milk and bake them for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are golden. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and dust them with powdered sugar. Continue making cookies in the same manner until all the dough is used.

To see original recipe, visit Crescent Jam and Cheese Cookies

It’s best to hide when eating these, you’ll want all of them.  So grab your plate and find a (fabulous) spot to hide.

Neiman Marcus

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