Yield: 12 cookie sandwiches

Time: 2 hrs

For someone who is a dessert maker and a self-professed pastry nerd, when given a choice, 9 out of 10 times, I would head straight to the cheese board rather than the dessert tray. I love the idea of a linzer cookie in a savory rather than its original sweet form. The base of this cookie is an almond shortbread with cheese and herbs, which coincidentally, reminds me of a popular Dutch Indonesian cheese cookies “Kaastengels”. Sandwiched between the cookies is the spicy, sweet, vinegary pepper jelly as a nod to replace the raspberry jam in the original Austrian Linzer cookies.

This cookie/cracker hybrid has a delicate crumb that melts in your mouth, with a savory cheese flavor combined with a sweet and spicy accent. From the looks of it (with its colorful confetti of chopped peppers swimming in the clear jelly reminiscent of stained glass), these are glamorous enough to take center stage on your next charcuterie board.

You can use your favorite store-bought pepper jelly for convenience but I have also included a freezer pepper jelly recipe which is simpler to make than conventional jelly but much more perishable as it doesn’t require as much sugar and heating ( both contribute to a longer shelf life) .

Ingredients:

4 ounces / ½ c unsalted butter at room temperature
3 ounces / 2 cups freshly grated hard cheese of your choice ( I recommend a combination of gruyere, parmigiano reggiano, and cheddar)
*1 tsp dry cheddar cheese powder (optional)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 tsp fresh herbs of your choice (I used thyme and chives)
1 egg yolk
5 ounces / 1 ⅛ c all purpose flour
1 ¼ ounces / ⅓ c almond flour
¼ cup pepper jelly ( recipe follows )

Procedure:

Beat butter in a mixer using a paddle attachment at medium low speed until creamy. Add cheese mixture, seasonings and herbs and continue to gently mix until incorporated. Add egg yolk and mix until well combined. Add almond and flour and fold with spatula until the dough comes together. Flatten dough into a disc. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes until firm.
Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment papers to ¼” thickness. Punch out with a cookie cutter of your desired shape. I used a round 2.25” diameter cookie cutter and I was able to get 10-12 sandwiches with a hole on the top cookie. Freeze cut out cookie dough for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheet with parchment or silicone mat. Transfer frozen cookie doughs to the prepared sheets.
Bake for 16-18 minutes until lightly golden.
Cool cookies on rack. Spread half the cookies with pepper jelly and top with remaining cookies.

Serve with chilled white wine

Freezer Pepper Jelly

Makes approx 2 cups

Time : 24 hrs

Ingredients

1 ½ cups minced and deseeded peppers of your choice (jalapeno, serrano, red or green peppers, etc ) you can control the heat by your choice of peppers and leaving in as much or as little of the seeds as you like.
⅜ of a cup of apple cider vinegar
2 ½ c sugar
1 tsp salt
2 ½ tbs freezer pectin ( not to be confused with regular pectin)
⅜ c water

Procedure:

Combine peppers, vinegar and sugar and salt in a bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes. If the sugar is not dissolved after sitting, pour the whole thing into a saucepan and heat on medium low, stir constantly just until all the sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature.
Combine freezer pectin and water in a saucepan; over medium heat, stirring constantly, and bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in pectin mixture into pepper mixture.
Pour into jars or containers. Cover with a lid and let sit at room temperature for 24 hrs until it sets. Once it sets, use immediately or keep in the refrigerator for up to a month or freeze for up to 6 months. To thaw, simply put in the refrigerator and eventually at room temperature for immediate use.

Recipe Tips & Notes for the Reader:

Freezer pectin is a specific type of pectin that allows you to make jams and jelly without cooking the fruits and uses a significant less amount of sugar. The process of making it is also much simpler than the conventional way.
The use of freezer jelly in this recipe makes these sandwich cookies have shorter shelf life. Refrigerate cookies for storage, and bring back to room temperature for immediate consumption. Using store bought jelly may contain preservatives that will allow you to store the sandwich cookies at room temperature for a short period of time. However, these cookies are so delicious, there will probably be no leftovers.