Savory Rosemary Cheese Spritz Crackers

In my quest to find savory recipes to make, I found this one.  I love it because it takes you through the motions of baking but won't leave you with an aching sweet tooth!

Clovers in honor of St. Patty's Day!

Savory Rosemary Cheese Spritz Crackers

Source: Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 large egg yolk

6 tablespoons heavy cream

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup finely grated Pecorino cheese

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves

1 teaspoons fine salt

Pinch freshly ground nutmeg 

Special Equipment: Cookie press

1. Bring all ingredients to room temperature.

2. Beat the butter and lemon zest with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 30 seconds. Slowly beat in the egg yolk and cream. OR: mix by hand like I do.

3. Whisk the flour, pecorino, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, sugar, rosemary, salt, and nutmeg together in a bowl. 4. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture while mixing slowly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on medium speed to make a slightly sticky dough.

5. Fill the cookie press with the dough. Assemble the press with the desired disk shape (see cook's note), and press cookies onto ungreased baking sheets. Leave about one inch between cookies. 

6. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and refrigerate cookies for 20 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

8. Bake cookies, rotating pan halfway through, until golden, the cheese browns a bit, and the cookies smell nutty, about 20 to 25 minutes. Briefly cool the crackers on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool. Serve or store in a tightly sealed container for up to 1 month.

Cook's Notes (from Foodnetwork.com): These freeze beautifully. Press the cookies out into desired shapes on cookie sheets and freeze. Transfer frozen crackers to a plastic bag, seal, and keep frozen for up to 1 month. When ready to bake, lay out frozen crackers on cookie trays and bake from frozen for 25 minutes.

Some disk shapes work better than others. Since this is savory cracker, we liked the cutters that result in a cracker shape cookie, like the ribbon, clover. Stars and and snowflakes work, too. 

My notes: 

- My crackers foamed with butter in the oven.  If this happens to you, make sure to be careful when turning the tray and removing them from the oven because they will slide around.  I put them on a cooling rack topped off with a paper grocery bag and paper towels to absorb some grease.

- I made these with the intention of sharing them on St. Patty's Day, but they were so good we ate all of them.  That's a lot of butter!

- I used only Pecorino cheese for simplicity's sake and they were delicious!

Here you can see my system for grease removal.