Generally, when a brand new meals comes alongside, I’ve a jaded response. Particularly when it’s a viral cookie recipe, which is typically too mediocre to warrant the hype, if I’m conserving it trustworthy. Fashionable cookies typically crumble, and one other tackle a chocolate chip isn’t gonna fly on this costly egg financial system. It’s no specific chef or baker’s fault. Cookie experimentation is at a max-out, and it wants a brand new wave of creativity that, in at the moment’s occasions, often comes from social media.
Enter a latest meals fad: Carolina Galen’s Chocolate Feta Cookies, which had been panned and praised by commenters in equal components, and baked by bloggers throughout the net. Generally I get forward of my palate and grimace on the unknown—knocking it and not attempting it, so to talk. As a substitute of doing that, I listened to the voice in my head that stated “Shhhh, that’s a superb recipe.”
In spite of everything, why would somebody who adores cheese tea boba (me) frown at a feta cookie (additionally me)? Candy and salty is a sacred duo. Since chocolate and feta didn’t converse to me like darkish roast Assam black tea with salted cheese foam and tapioca pearls does, my mind began drifting to different feta pairings that would work. Feta and fruit is a confirmed good pairing—you could find it in a watermelon salad or an apricot tart—so it’s excessive time the 2 components danced collectively in cookie kind. Remembering some actually enjoyable experiments with freeze-dried strawberries, the lightbulb went off!
Satisfied that somebody had already completed this combo, I used to be shocked to seek out out it’s both a model new recipe, or one which has been buried in salad search engine optimization because of a glut of strawberry and feta aspect dishes. I rapidly started working testing, however contemplating how yummy these two flavors are in different recipes, it was predetermined to be scrumptious.
After making a couple of variations, the ensuing cookie is one thing actually particular, each visually and in style. Embedded in a easy sugar cookie base, the flavors are daring and take heart stage, the place richer cookie bases might overcomplicate issues. Strawberry runs heat, and utilizing brown sugar or browned butter would possibly end in an “overheating” of flavors, placing a minerally be aware that runs overly sizzling. Sugar cookie’s butter and sweetener ratios have softer aromas, making house for creamy, salty cheese, and sharp, candy berries.
All in all, these style like strawberry cheesecake in a cookie’s physique—luscious and barely savory. Freeze-dried strawberry is the ticket to intense taste and coloration, and utilizing a pre-crumbled cow feta lends a light, creamy, and barely funky taste that turns into an iconic pairing when baked up.
For the foodies, the aroma of the nice and cozy, just-baked cookie mimics an ideal margherita pizza—not with an oregano and sauce be aware, nevertheless it’s just like the pure sweetness of recent crushed tomatoes and milky mozzarella on high of a wood- or coal-fired pie. If you happen to don’t wanna freak out the cheese squeamish, go along with the extra approachable comparability to cheesecake.
Earlier than you seize the bowl, listed below are some necessary ideas:
- Crunch up the strawberries further advantageous for optimum taste and minimal modifications to cookie texture.
- Don’t even consider using recent strawberries or jam; they add an excessive amount of moisture.
- Overbaking is just not your good friend—the strawberry will brown instantly for those who take it too far.
Strawberry Feta Cookies (makes 28 medium-sized cookies)
Substances:
- 1 ¾ cups flour spooned and leveled
- 1 cup sugar, plus about ¼ cup extra for dusting
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 ounces freeze dried strawberries, packaging unopened
- 4 ounces crumbled feta
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 massive egg, room temperature
- ½ cup butter (one stick), room temperature
Squish the unopened bag of freeze dried strawberries, till it turns into a advantageous powder. (Alternatively, you should use a meals processor.)
Sift the dry components collectively, besides sugar, then stir in 4 ounces of strawberry powder.
Combine the remaining strawberries with ¼ cup granulated white sugar and put aside.
Cream butter and sugar with an electrical mixer till gentle and fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla, then set it to the bottom pace and slowly add the dry components till simply blended.
Get courageous and fold within the crumbled feta, taking care to not overmix or stir an excessive amount of.
Chill within the bowl for half-hour.
Roll or scoop into 1 1/2-inch balls, toss within the remaining pink sugar, after which chill the dough once more for half-hour.
Bake for 12 minutes at 350°F on a sheet of parchment or silicone baking mat, however maintain an in depth eye over the past 2 minutes, to keep away from browning the strawberry mud, and rotate midway via the baking time in case your oven isn’t recognized for even warmth.
Let the cookies cool for five minutes on the tray, then end on a rack, which isn’t a frivolous step; it permits the sugar to crystallize correctly, making for a crunchy outdoors whereas leaving some inner chew.
Serve and blow individuals’s minds with this distinctive, enjoyable, and summery cookie combo. As a result of these are each a novelty and actually wealthy, I ended up freezing half of the cookie balls to entertain, or entertain boredom, and baked 15 of them on a single cookie sheet with a silicone mat, which was a mistake. You wish to actually ensure that they’ve room to unfold, so keep on with 12 max per massive cookie sheet.
Don’t be afraid to run with Galen’s feta spark as I did; one other freeze-dried berry might be scrumptious right here, and somebody’s gotta discover a strategy to make a watermelon cookie that doesn’t style like a vape or Starburst. Use funkier feta from sheep to be extra adventurous, or press a couple of further crumbs on high for ornamental aptitude. Mess around with it, simply as the unique cookie creator did. You would possibly find yourself creating the following viral dessert sensation.
