Cheese Cranberry Cookies

With Thanksgiving only four days away, I tried to think of something fitting to express my thanks for the creation of cheese. I was on the fence at first when I came across this recipe but I'm glad my faith in fromage saw me through. It is right to give thanks and praise to the Cheese Cranberry Cookie. The delicious taste of the cheese complimented with a bite of sweet cranberry filling makes think of a perfect little Thanksgiving meal rolled in to one cookie. Minus the turkey. But let's be honest. Who cares about turkey when you've got these on the table?

Let me just say that if the priests would start using these instead of the stale communion wafer, I'd go back to church every Sunday.

I found the recipe in an old copy of The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking edited by Charlotte Turgeon that my mother gave me. It's a bit retro in feel but I like that. Besides, with a cookbook crammed with 2000 recipes, there's bound to be a few dozen I can't live without. Just two quick notes:

1. I toasted the pecans before putting them in the filling for extra crunch and flavor.
2. I sifted a bit of confectioner's sugar on them when they got out of the oven.

Now drop down and give me three Hail Marys for the amount of these you will consume in less than a half hour.





Recipe:

2 cups of sifted flour
2 cups of grated cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of butter or margarine
1/4 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 400*

Mix flour, cheese and salt. Cut in butter with pastry blender or your hands. Add milk. Roll dough in foil. Chill. Roll thinly on lightly floured board. Cut in to desired shapes. Spread half the shapes with filling. Cover with remaining shapes. Press edges well together. Place on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes. Yields 30.

Filling:

3/4 cup of cranberry jelly
1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Break up jelly with fork, add other ingredients and mix well.