Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Peppery Feta Shortbread

This is a simple savoury shortbread cookie or a cracker recipe using feta cheese and pepper.Shortbread is usually made from one part sugar,two parts butter and three parts flour.They are called so because of their crumbly texture due to high fat content.The fat content is from butter /shortening.The shortbread is usually baked at lower temperatures to prevent burning and can be white,brown or golden brown.Normally these are sweet as can be seen from the ingredients,but if you want a savoury cookie,you need to avoid sugar or any sweetner.I found a savoury shortbread recipe here and recreated it with little changes.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour: 2/3 cup
Yellow Cornmeal:1tbsp
Pepper: as per taste
Fennel(optional):very few
Feta Cheese: 6 tbsp or 3 oz
Unsalted Butter: 3 tbsp cold
Olive Oil: 2 tbsp

Preparation:

In a big bowl,combine flour,cornmeal and pepper and fennel if using or any other herb of your choice.Add in grated feta cheese and mix well.Add in cold butter cut into pieces.Combine well using hands pinching and fluffing butter pieces till the mix looks like coarse sand.Add in olive oil and combine the mix together to form dough.Shape the dough into log shape or any required shape and wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour atleast. Alternatively,you can freeze the dough if using later for upto 1 month and can thaw it in the fridge for a while before using.

Preheat the oven to 375F.Take out the chilled dough log and cut into slices and arrange these on a bakingsheet.Ungreased bakingsheet also works fine.Sprinkle more pepper on each slice and then bake for 8-10 minutes or more until the edges start browning a little.Mine took 12 minutes.But still it was light or almost white coloured,though the bottom was little brown.Allow it to cool for a few minutes in the baking sheet and then serve as such.Alternately you can cool them completely in a wire rack after a few minutes.These are very crumbly cookies and go well with soups or as a snack.

I have not added salt to the dough as feta is salty.Also you can also use softened butter as seen in some recipes.But generally cold butter is used in shortbread,so I went for it.Butter,especially cold butter prevents the formation of long gluten strands in flour which results in the crumbly sensitive texture.Those who like the salty feta cheese would fefinitely like these crackers.


These savoury shortbread are on their way to WTSIM:Sweet Savoury Swap event hosted this time by the creator herself-Jeanne,the CookSister.

28 Comments:

Trupti said...

Short bread looks very delicious CL

Cham said...

This one looks like a buttermilk biscuit! Savory is always welcome in my home! Looks yum

anudivya said...

Fennel, butter and pepper! You have me hooked! That must have tasted so delicious.

Pavithra Kodical said...

Recipe sounds interesting..I liked the addition of fennel in this ;)

Unknown said...

I love shortbread, but then I am more of a savoury person than sweet. Never thought I could make savoury shortbread. Thanks for the inspiration :)

Chris said...

Looks great! I've wanted to try savory shortbread for awhile now and feta sounds like the perfect addition :)

Vibaas said...

they look delicious.

Yasmeen said...

Love the crumbly texture,I have some feta left from that cheese bread I made,I found your recipe just in time,will try them soon:)

Sunshinemom said...

That is the reason why I avoid these lovelies - high fat! The savory version looks good, reminds me of mathri! You could send this to Think spice, think fennel event too:)

Unknown said...

looks nice..and love the ingredients you use..will try it sometime..

Deepthi Shankar said...

looks delicious. I have always loved savoury versions. great flavours there

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

i really wonder where u get these recipes from.. u recipes are always unique and new :) keep it up!

Priya Suresh said...

Never tried anything with feta, shortbread looks gorgeous CL...

Unknown said...

feta and fennel humm adifferent flavour intresting looks so tempting can i have 1humm 2 3 4 please.....

Finla said...

Looks so yummy delicous.

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

I never knew about savoury shortbread. I've only made the sweet kind which my daughter loves.
This looks lovely. I love the savoury bit.

Navita (Gupta) Hakim said...

great swap! love the savoury twist

Usha said...

This really sounds like a one of a kind shortbread with fennel and feta ! Yum !

Joie de vivre said...

Feta in a shortbread!? What wonderful evil genius is this?

Purva Desai said...

Peppery short breads sounds interesting, they must have tasted yumm....
And new template looks neat

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy.

Nithya Praveen said...

Looks like white color cookies/biscuits...Adding fennel to it is a wonderful idea.Good one:)

Andhra Flavors said...

my loved shortbread. it looks delicious.

Suparna said...

shortbreads with fennel tha's a nice variation . Looks superb!!
ciya!!

grace said...

anudivya said exactly what i was thinking, except i was going more for CHEESE, butter, and pepper. good stuff! :)

Recipeswap said...

Delish!!!!!!I love savory bread!Bookmarked.

soma said...

This is a wonderful recipe! pepper & fennel.. real good combination & use of spice.
Soma(www.ecurry.com)

Jude said...

Douns crumbly with a bit of crunch from cornmeal. This would be great with a rich stew.

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