Fig and Blue Cheese Savouries

Have you ever volunteered to bring an appetizer to a friend’s house for dinner and then your mind goes completely blank? Like you have never eaten an appetizer before in your life, let alone been invited to a dinner party with one? Why did I not just offer to bring wine? Well, I was faced with this problem a few weeks ago when, after offering to bring something to dinner, my gracious host texted back “an appetizer would be great.” Most people would remain calm, pick up some cheese at the store and call it a day. My thought was “Okay. It is 3 p.m. what on earth am I going to bring?” Panic.

I know this sounds totally insane since I talk about food all the time, subscribe to every food magazine published on this earth, and have a stress inducing amount of food blogs on my google reader. But sometimes my mind hits panic mode when trying to come up with things to cook. Maybe this is just me as I tend to obsess over what food to order at restaurants and waste hours deciding what to cook every week. Seriously, entire Sunday afternoons have been spent scouring cookbooks and food sites to plan the weekly grocery store trip. You would think I was trying to come up with my first ever restaurant menu, not just cooking for Andrew the H and myself.

But here’s the thing. Cheese can be so predictable, and even though it is usually one of my go-to appetizers because of its ease and reliability, sometimes you just want something a little different, right? Okay well I was in that mood. So at 3 p.m., I started my search for the perfect bring to a friend’s house appetizer. Oh, and it had to be ready in four hours, including the grocery shopping time to find ingredients because my fridge was pretty much empty. Why I do these things to myself I will never understand.

After wasting close to an hour, I remembered Food52’s Your Best Open House Dish contest over the holidays. Surely, something would be interesting—and most importantly portable—from that one. And whaddya know? These Fig and Blue Cheese Savouries totally spoke to me. A snap to put together, these were exactly what I was looking for. I was a little hesitant about the blue cheese (I am usually soo not a fan), but I absolutely love love LOVE fig jam. I trusted the cheesemonger at Feast in Charlottesville’s judgement and opted for Gorgonzola Dolce for a milder blue cheese flavor. I was pretty sure that I could handle subtle blue cheese flavor.

And guess what, these were a huge hit at the party. These crumbly morsels are the perfect combination of salty and sweet. Like a cheese plate party in your mouth! And best of all, I now have a new one-bite appetizer in my rotation.

So thanks TheRunawaySpoon for this great recipe, from one Memphis lady (that’s me – Memphis is my hometown!) to another (you obvy).

Notes: The key to these thumbprints is using good quality blue cheese and fig jam. It will really make an enormous difference! You should be able to find fig preserves at your local grocery store in the “fancy” jams aisle, but if you have trouble a quince or pear jam would work nicely as well. If you don’t need three dozen, halve the dough, form a log, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and pop in the freezer. When you want to bake these again, defrost in the fridge and slice the log into 1/4 to 1/8-inch thick rounds.

If you are having trouble with the dough (it can be sort of sticky) and you have added flour plus your board is also well floured and you are still problems, then you can refrigerate the dough (form ball and wrap in plastic) for about 30 minutes. If this still makes you nervous or you don’t have a ton of space to be rolling dough, then form into a log, wrap in plastic wrap, chill for at least an hour, then cut into rounds.

Also, if you are a blue cheese lover, try a stronger blue. Mine was subtle and not overpowering but again, I definitely do not fall in the “blue cheese lover” category.

Fig and Blue Cheese Savouries
Adapted from TheRunawaySpoon via Food52

{Makes approximately 3 dozen}

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces good quality blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Fig preserves, about 3 tablespoons

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the flour, butter, blue cheese black pepper, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the dough just comes together and starts to form a ball.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to pull the dough together, adding flour if sticky. Roll out to 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Cut rounds out of the dough with a floured 1- or 2-inch cutter and transfer the rounds to the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Using the back of a round teaspoon measure or your knuckle, make an indention in the top of each dough round. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon of fig preserves into each indention, using your finger to push the preserves as best as possible into the indentions.

Bake the savories for 12–14 minutes, until the preserves are bubbling and the pastry is light golden.

Let cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool.

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