Savory Shortbread Cookies With Olives and Rosemary Recipe (2024)

Made this according to the recipe (reducing the sugar as others suggested) and it was just kind of...ok. Next time, I'll use this recipe as a platform, but (1) eliminate the sugar and (2) add 1/2 c parmesan, 2 teaspoons of black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. And serve with a creamy blue cheese.

Do bear in mind these are more a dessert than a co*cktail cracker. Unusual and delicious. In NM I had to add an extra tbls. and 1/2 of cream to get the dough to come together.

These are delicious! I modified to be vegan friendly by substituting a plant-based "butter" for the real thing and full-fat coconut milk for the cream.

These are tasty and easy to make but I’d probably cut the sugar in half next time. They want to be both cookies and savory shortbreads and they’re trying to do too much. The sweetness level with the olives ends up being a bit confusing on the palette. Would be better if the recipe was more focused on the savory elements.

9"/(1/2)"*2 =36 cookies

Abraço in the East Village makes a similar cookie except with dry cured olives. You can dry cure your own olives by burying them in salt for a few weeks. The saltiness and funkiness of cured olives gives them an even more interesting taste profile.

These look like chocolate chip cookies. I can hear the howls of disappointment now from little cookie-snatchers!

I also had to add more cream to make the dough come together, maybe 2-3 Tbs more. Also in NM but don't the the dry desert climate was the issue. They were uniquely delicious as a co*cktail dessert cookie, added to a party where assorted cheeses and water crackers were offered. Quite the hit.

Made these today and like several others had trouble getting the dough together without adding additional cream. Was afraid of overworking the dough as I struggled to get it together but it turned out ok. Love the cookies but couldn’t detect any flavor of rosemary or the lemon. Will add more of each next time!

New favorite. I rarely measure chopped herbs and am glad I did as my eyeball was way off-I would not have used enough. I zested one grocery store lemon that had seen the world a while-I would use a bigger better lemon next time. There will definitely be a next time. I like them as sweet cookies that are weird. They taste like fancy chichi “rich people party” cookies to me. Very “Bond. James Bond. “ (I am a rural midwesterner and have not been to a rich person’s party.)

Lovely, unique flavor. Next time I will cut the sugar down to half a cup. For me 22 min was a tad too long to cook, but it could be my oven.

Made these luv'em. I cut the sugar in half, I added more butter to the flour, following a more traditional ratio. Next time maybe a touch more rosemary lemon zest. Wondering about using olive brine in part or whole for the cream. Color would be weird but definitely strong olive taste.

For those who like this variation, search for "scourtins." Uses dried black olives. It's really about the contrast of salty bitter olives and sweet butter. revelatory and impossible to stop eating. I like the idea here of rosemary and lemon, but nearby; maybe a Meyer-rosemary relish?

A pastry blender would be a good tool for this dough to achieve that great crumbly texture of flour and butter.

I made this cookie as written, except for the heavy cream (I didn't have in my fridge). I used an equal volume of oat milk. The cookies were AMAZING! Highly recommend!

Definitely more sweet but with a unique twist. Made some tweaks but these are one of my newest favourites! I used half the sugar, 1cup white flour, 1 cup whole wheat and I used full fat coconut milk. Might try to bump up lemon zest and rosemary next time. But a really unique treat and worth making!

Okay, all of you in the school of "next time I'm adding parmesan" have completely missed the point of this amazing COOKIE. It is not a cracker or a biscuit or any kind of savory snack. It's delicious as is. Have a drink or a smoke or just stay up way too late, and I promise you, this unconventional flavor combination will feel revelatory.

These are great! Cut sugar to 1/2 cup and was generous with zest and rosemary. My dough needed about 9 T. of cream to come together. Baked for 26 min and they were still a bit soft, but very good. I expect them to be even better next day.

I am bringing these to our holiday gathering tomorrow as an appetizer. They will be a big hit. Hopefully my spouse won't eat them all before tomorrow. So tasty. I didn't have a lemon so used orange zest.

The comments were making me nervous about the sugar, but I decided to make the recipe as-is anyway. I am so GLAD I did- these are my new favorite cookies. Definitely not too sweet. Baking the olives makes their flavor more mild, and it mixes with the rosemary and lemon flavors beautifully. I'll be making these again!

The major problem I had was the roll of cookies that came out of the fridge crumbled when I tried to roll it. Ended up with a pile of useless cookie crumbles. It is just too hard to roll when it comes out of the fridge. The few I was able to bake tasted good but from two full batches I probably only got 15 decent cookies. Frustrating.

Made a half batch (halved all the ingredients) following the recipe to the letter and it came out great. I'm in Houston, and this was a particularly muggy day, so I didn't need to increase the cream.

I love these cookies; made them as gifts in 2022 and everyone loved them. But I did need to amend the recipe. I live in NYC and still needed close to 2 additional TBS of heavy cream to get the dough to form into a log. Second time around I also used saran wrap rather than parchment paper to roll the dough in—was easier to form the log.

These started life a tiny cafe on East 7th Street in the East Village called Abraco– using oil-cured olives, fresh thyme and orange zest– sometime in the late '90s. I'd recommend using oil-cured olives instead of Kalamata, which are too wet and sharp for shortbread. They're perfect with an aperitif any time of the year.

These are absolutely fantastic and easy to make.

Oven broke and I had to freeze the dough before baking. What is the adjusted cooking time when starting with frozen dough?

I have become addicted to this cookie and love the combination of savory/slightly sweet. Very unusuaI. They disappeared quickly the first time I served them. I should have held some back.I did prepare it last time using a food processor. I think they might have been fine that way, but I should not have thrown in the olives. In addition, I suspect they will be more tender-flaky when done the way the recipe suggests, so that is how I'll prepare them tomorrow

I modified this recipe with dried cranberries instead of olives. Based on previous comments, I used only 1/3 C sugar. I used more zest and rosemary (two lemons and 2.5 tsp of fresh chopped rosemary). I also used 8 T (1/2 C of heavy cream). I thought they were better after a day or so. I froze the ones we didn't eat right away. I have added this modified version into my go-to "cookie/biscuit" file as a delicious and beautiful savory option. Enjoy!!

I made these cookies according to the recipe, but combining 48 g of coconut flour into the total flour. I loved the results. Perfectly savory.

Butter leaked out of my cookies! I used a food processor and maybe didn’t pulse it enough? Otherwise I followed the recipe step by step. Any thoughts?