my.requiescence.

Crescent Jam and Cheese Cookies

I’m not sure I would call these cookies (instead of pastries), but I will not hesitate to call them AMAZING. 

The flaky pastry dough is very reminiscent of (if not identical to) another favorite “cookie” of mine, rugelach. I don’t know what chemical reactions occur between the cheese and butter at 400 degrees, but they just happen and give you wonderfully light and flakey croissant-like layers (but without all the intensive work). WIN.

These “cookies” are infinitely adaptable to your taste preferences because you can fill them with any sweet or savory ingredient(s) that strikes your fancy. My fancy this time? Nutella. And raspberry preserves. 

The raspberry preserves were a little messy… it didn’t want to stay in the dough. Or perhaps I (as usual) was a tad bit over-generous with the portion of filling.

And this has been a familiar scene lately with all the snow that fell this week, though I can happily say that I love the results of a dusting of powdered sugar in my kitchen so much more than the consequences of a snowstorm in Boston (brown slush and ice until April).

Oh, hello delectable flakey layers. Thank you for being so addictive.

Crescent Jam and Cheese Cookies
adapted from Smitten Kitchen, via The Gourmet Cookie Book

makes about 30 cookies

2 sticks (1 cup, 8 ounces or 227 grams) unsalted butter, softened
7.5 ounces farmer cheese (a lowfat cottage/ricotta-style cheese; I used Friendship)
2 tablespoons (1 ounce or 30 grams) sour cream (I used greek-style yogurt)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups (8 3/4 ounces or 250 grams) all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling cookies out
1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling of your fancy (I used raspberry preserves and Nutella)
Milk, for brushing cookies
Powdered sugar, for dusting

1. Cream butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. 
2. Force cheese through a sieve right onto creamed butter and stir it in. 
3. Add the sour cream and vanilla and combine the mixture well. 
4. Whisk or sift together flour and salt in a separate bowl and gradually blend it into the cheese mixture. 
5. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill it for at least 3 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 400°F. 
7. 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 and put about 1/2 teaspoon filling in the center of each. 
8. Fold the dough in half on the diagonal, pressing firmly down to seal the two sides around the jam. Roll the triangle into crescents, starting at the wide end. 
9. Arrange crescents on a baking sheet (about an inch between each since they do not expand too much), brush them lightly with milk and bake them for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are golden. 
10. 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.
    

The cookies are certainly the best the day of when the layers are still crisp and flakey. They will be a bit softer in the following days, but we found that toasting them briefly in a toaster oven crisped them right back up.