This maple cheddar shortbread is a cinch to make. I used gluten-free flour, but feel free to use regular flour as well. This is a winner for anyone who loves a salty-sweet treat. 

Have you ever gone through a period in your life where you felt like nothing was in your control? You were robotically moving from one point to the next, trying not to crash, grinning and bearing like crazy?

Yeah.

That’s been this semester for me. I even got in trouble for not grinning enough.  I want to launch into a this-wouldn’t-be-an-issue-if-I-were-a-dude diatribe, but I’m too tired. Ladies, you get me.

When life gets like this, I find it useful to focus on routine matters.  There’s peace in the familiar, in the tried and true.  A running routine, a morning tea routine…..a cheddar routine?

It’s not a crazy notion, really. Think of all the comfort foods that include cheese.

I love these cookies for their amazing cheddar-packed flavor and for their simplicity. The dough comes together quickly in your food processor or blender or Bullet or whatever. If you are a traditional kind of human, you can even use a pastry blender.

Chill the dough and roll it up a pecan maple mix, and chill again. Then cut it up into 1/4 inch slices and bake.  The pecan coating with caramelize in the oven, which is a happy compliment to the sharpness of the smoked cheddar.

Raise your hand if you need a little bit of sweet to compliment the sharper notes in your life. (that’s everybody, right?)

Print

Yum

Maple Cheddar Shortbread

Yield: 21 cookies

prep time: 15 min/ chill time: 35-45 min/ bake time: 15-18 min

Ingredients

• 8 oz of smoked cheddar, shredded
• 2/3 cup of cup to cup gluten free flour (like Bob's in the blue bag)
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp sriracha
outer pecan coating
• 3/4 cup pecan pieces
• 3 more tbsp maple syrup

Instructions

1. Throw the shredded cheddar and a good portion (but not all) of the flour in the blender and pulse until combined and crumbly.
2. Dump the cheddar mix in a bowl. Add the maple syrup and sriracha, and then the remaining flour. (you want to add the remaining flour last because it will make the wet ingredients easier to mix in with your hands).
3. Um....mix it all together with your hands and then roll it into a log that's about 7 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter.
4. Wrap the log in parchment paper and freeze for 10-15 minutes.
5. Combine the maple syrup and pecan pieces.
6. Unwrap the log, spread the maple pecan mix on the parchment. Roll the log in the mix and then wrap it back up tightly.
7. Freeze for 25-30 more minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 350.
9. Slice the log into 1/4 inch pieces.
10. Bake for 15-18 minutes until they darken and get a little golden. If they are a little dark on the bottom (which normally is an awful thing to happen to a cookie), that's totally fine. It's just the maple syrup caramelizing on the bottom. Also, the pecans will caramlize too and that makes it so amazing.
11. The cookies will be pliable right of the oven, but will harden and snap as they cool.
12. Serve with love

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http://kitchenwindowclovers.com/maple-cheddar-shortbread/

adapted very slightly from here