Pear and Rosemary

I love my herb garden and I love trying to find new ways to use herbs when I cook.  One of my latest obsessions is try to come up with interesting ways to add herbs to cookies.  I have recipes for lemon-thyme shortbread, orange-rosemary shortbread,  lemon-lavender shortbread, salted rosemary shortbread and cinnamon basil cookies.  As you can also see, I am a fan of shortbread as well.  So when I saw a recipe for rosemary-pear thumbprint shortbread cookies I just had to try it out!  The recipe was in a Fall Baking magazine from Taste of the South.  These just may be my new favorite cookie, so I wanted to share it with all our friends.  These cookies are easy, but you do have to allow for a 2 hour rest in the fridge to give the dough time to chill.  Here's what you do...

Vanilla, butter, corn starch, all purpose flour, fresh rosemary, confectioners' sugar and pear preserves

Cream 1 1/2 cups softened butter and 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar until light, fluffy and creamy.  This will take about 6 minutes. Add 1t. vanilla and 1/2 t. salt and mix well.  In a separate bowl combine 2 cups all purpose flour and 1 c. cornstarch.  Add this to the butter mixture and beat until completely combined.  Add 2 T. finely chopped fresh rosemary and mix well.  Shape dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.  Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment.  Use a small scoop, make 1" balls of dough.  Place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.  Slightly flatten each ball and make a thumbprint in the middle of the dough.  Fill each thumbprint with 1/2 t. of pear preserves.  Place in oven and bake until lightly browned, approximately 12-15 minutes.

The combination of rosemary and pear is a match made in heaven.  Try these sweeties and let me know what you think!

Get a Printable Recipe HERE!