My Savory Christmas Cookie Box!

I’ve been pondering this idea of an all-savory Christmas “cookie” box all year and I am so excited with how it turned out. The purpose of this blog post is to share a little more detail about each item I included in the box, since I can’t include this much detail or links in an Instagram caption.

Hey, I love Christmas cookies too. But I will always crave and choose savory snacks over something sweet. Christmas cookie boxes are so pretty and festive, and I did not think it was fair that us members of Team Savory do not typically get to celebrate our love for salty, cheesy, and umami-y treats with the same aesthetic charm. (Popcorn tins and mixed nut boxes simply don’t do it for me.) So I made a selection of savory miniature treats that would look just as lovely tucked together in a little box as cookies and candies would.

A couple of disclaimers: I realized afterwards that everything happens to be cheese-flavored because I really, really like cheese, but I do want to mention that I am fully aware that there are other great savory flavors out there that do not involve being made of cheese. Also, I made this as a creative challenge for myself, using leftover items from other baking projects and small-batch versions of recipes; as it contains cheese and meat, it is not meant to be a mailed gift, since everything needs to be refrigerated. However, I think this would be a lovely gift idea for a cheese-loving friend that you are visiting in person, and I hope it inspires you to think outside of the cookie box with your own baking projects for this holiday season.

Here’s a list of what’s in my savory Christmas cookie box

On the left:

• Savory cookies with sun-dried tomatoes, feta, and za’atar: It took me a while to figure out exactly what a savory cookie would be like. I know there are savory shortbread recipes out there, but I wanted to include at least one “cookie” in my box that really resembled the shape of a nice thick cookie, and with the same satisfying bite. When I took a step back and thought about the process of baking cookies, I realized that drop biscuits were basically a savory version of a cookie! My recipe for these is adapted from a buttermilk drop biscuit recipe, but with tasty mix-ins of feta, sun-dried tomatoes, and za’atar to replace the chocolate chunks, dried fruit, and baking spices that are found in many Christmas cookie recipes. Get the recipe for these savory cookies here.

• Mini cheese balls: These cheese and walnut balls were inspired by the old school cheese balls covered in nuts that I remember being on grazing boards at my parents’ friends’ holiday parties when I was little. I used to really look forward to these because at my house, the only cheese items we ever had were the green can of parm and Kraft Singles. I made these by combining grated sharp white cheddar, cream cheese, garlic powder, and walnuts in the food processor and then rolling the resulting mixture into 1-inch balls. The ones on the left were rolled in chopped walnuts and the ones on the right were rolled in cheddar cheese powder (like the kind meant for seasoning popcorn). I love how these turned out looking like a visual dupe of the Russian tea cakes that my mom used to make at Christmas time every year.

• Homemade white cheddar “Cheez-Its” with dill and white pepper: For something bite-sized and light, I made my own Cheez-It crackers, based on this recipe by Don’t Waste the Crumbs. I only made one quarter of the recipe and used sharp white cheddar instead of orange cheddar, and used a bit of white pepper instead of garlic and onion powders. After cutting the crackers out with a scalloped round cookie cutter, I pressed little fronds of dill on them for decoration and poked a bunch of little holes to keep them flat. I thought of these as a savory counterpart to gingersnaps, since both are crisp and have a warming spiced note to them.

On the right:

• Cheddar gougères: These cheesy choux pastry puffs are a savory version of the same pastry shells used for profiteroles, eclairs, or cream puffs and are just as light as air and fun to eat. These were left over from a commissioned recipe where I filled the gougères with foie gras mousse. You can find the recipe for them here. Baked choux pastry keeps well in the freezer and simply needs to be popped back into the oven for a bit to be defrosted and brought back to life.

• Country pâté and cheese hand pies: These miniature pies are filled with brie cheese and pâté de campagne, or country pâté. They were inspired by British picnic pies and the meat filling is similar to a terrine or to Spam, so it holds its shape and is perfect for a little hand-held pie. I decorated these with a combination of parsley, dill, and pink peppercorns to give them that festive look. These were also left over from a commissioned recipe, which you can find here.

• Goat cheese mole “truffles”: To make these, I folded together soft goat cheese and chopped pepitas for a twist on the cheese and nut balls I mentioned above. After chilling the mixture in the fridge to firm up a bit, I rolled it into little balls, and then rolled that in a mixture of unsweetened cocoa powder and this Mexican mole-inspired spice blend to create a savory version of a chocolate truffle. After all, mole is a wonderful example of how chocolate can be savory too!

• Pie pastry leaves: I had some leftover pie pastry scraps that I shaped into leaves, eggwashed, and baked. These got tucked into the final little space left in the bottom corner of the box.

For extra decorations, I used winter savory (the herb, whose name I thought was very appropriate for this) and bay leaves that I cut into the shape of holly leaves using kitchen shears.

For 2024, I set a challenge for myself to reimagine desserts and other confectionary sweet treats and create savory counterparts that are just as beautifully styled. You can see other examples of my “make it savory” series here. I had such fun with this challenge and I still have more ideas that I didn’t get around to yet, so I will definitely be continuing this series in the new year!

Recipe: Savory Sun-Dried Tomato, Feta, Za'atar Cookies

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Here is another installment in my quest to reimagine dessert items with savory foods. I have been pondering the idea of a savory cookie for some time now. There are lots of savory shortbread recipes out there but that isn’t what I mean about a cookie. I wanted to come up with something for savory snack lovers that would have the same heft and give them the same satisfaction as it would for a sweet tooth biting into a nice, thick, chewy cookie fresh and warm from the oven.

The tricky part about coming up with a savory cookie recipe was conceptualizing what a savory cookie would even be like. Unlike muffins or pies, which begin with fairly neutral doughs and then get flavored or filled in ways that skew them sweet or savory, it felt to me like the very spirit of a cookie was its dessert-y nature. But it finally dawned on me! When I took a further step away from what I imagined a baked cookie to be, and thought instead about what the process of making them was like, I realized that sweet cookies are quite similar to savory drop biscuits!

I really should have thought of this sooner considering that what we Americans call “cookies” are called “biscuits” in England (though I think in England the term only applies to thin, crisp cookies and not the hefty ones I was trying to emulate). On the flip side, in the U.S., a biscuit is considered a type of quick bread with a dry exterior and a soft buttery interior. I love to make flakey biscuits with an almost laminated quality to them, with dough that gets rolled out and cut, so they puff up in the oven into distinct layers. But drop biscuits are made by a moist dough that gets all mixed up in a bowl before being dolloped right onto a baking tray; that sounds a lot like making cookies, doesn’t it?

So, the truth is that these savory cookies are actually drop biscuits with some yummy savory mix-ins, which I flattened slightly so they’d look like cookies after baking. They are soft, yet satisfyingly substantial and perhaps a little more dense than a sweet cookie. My recipe is adapted from a drop biscuit recipe from Simply Recipes.

A note about special equipment for making savory cookies: As these are really drop biscuits disguised as cookies, I wanted to stick to what I knew about keeping biscuits airy and soft, which is keeping the butter very cold and in small chunks that don’t melt until they reach the hot oven. I used a food processor to very quickly break the butter into tiny but chilled pieces amidst the flour mixture. If you don’t have a food processor, you could use a pastry blender or even just a butter knife to cut the butter into the flour, but you will need to work quickly to keep the butter cold.

Flavor variations for savory cookies: I think there are endless favor combinations to be explored with these savory cookies! This is just the first one I tried but I definitely want to play around with more. To get a look that resembled a white chocolate chunk cookie, I added chunks of feta and I also chose sun-dried tomato as a mix-in because it’s the holiday season and many holiday cookies involve dried fruit for whatever reason. (Plus I just love the flavor of sun-dried tomatoes). In place of the usual holiday baking spices, I used za’atar, which brought a wonderful complex savory flavor to the cookies. If you wish to explore other flavors, keep the amount of shredded cheese the same, and replace the 1/4 cup feta and 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes with 1/2 cup of whatever chunky add-ons you wish.

How to Make Savory Sun-Dried Tomato, Feta, Za'atar Cookies

(Makes 6 cookies)

Ingredients

1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, cut in strips or small chunks
1/2 cup half and half
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
4 tbsp butter, cold, cut into chunks
1/4 cup grated cheddar or monterey jack
1 tsp za’atar
1/4 cup feta, broken into small chunks

Special Equipment

food processor

Procedure

Combine sun-dried tomatoes with a bit of hot water in a small bowl, to rehydrate them. Once the sun-dried tomatoes feel tender, gently squeeze away the excess water and set tomato pieces aside.

Combine half and half and lemon juice in a small bowl. Allow to sit while preparing the dry ingredients.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Add about half of the flour and all of the baking powder, sugar, salt, and butter into a food processor and pulse a few times. Add cheddar and remaining flour and pulse mixture into a coarse crumb texture. Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Mix in za’atar. Add rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes. Stir in half and half mixture. As dough starts to come together, add feta. Keep stirring until a sticky, cohesive dough is formed, but be careful to not overwork the dough.

Divide dough into 6 and scoop them into small mounds on the prepared tray, leaving at least 2 inches in between each. Using wet fingers, gently flatten the mounds to make them more cookie-shaped.

Bake for 18–20 minutes.

Savory Sandwich Cake with Truffle Pâté

GO STRAIGHT TO THE RECIPE ON 3PIGS.COM >>

Surprise—This layer cake is actually bread! One of my goals for this year is to take dishes and food concepts that are normally associated with desserts and reimagine them with savory foods. For this recipe, I took inspiration from the Swedish smörgåstårta, which is basically a stacked sandwich made to resemble a frosted layer cake. But instead of tucking Scandinavian seafood fillings in between the slices of rye bread, I wanted mine to be a centerpiece version of the little tea sandwiches you might find at a garden tea party. ⁣

I developed this recipe for Three Little Pigs, using their truffle mousse pâté, homemade savory onion chutney, and cucumbers. The “cake” is frosted with a whipped goat cheese and mascarpone blend and decorated with dill, parsley, geraniums, daisies, and chamomile flowers.

Click here to get the recipe on the Three Little Pigs site!

Thank you so much to Three Little Pigs for sponsoring this recipe!

Recipe: Savory Veggie Cupcakes with Cheesy Cauliflower Frosting

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For this recipe, I partnered with Cabot Creamery to create a savory version of a cupcake! These moist and tender cakes are loaded with broccoli and sharp cheddar and made both flavorful and fragrant with the help of a touch of curry.  Believe it or not, the “frosting” is savory too—it’s actually a smooth cauliflower purée loaded with sharp cheddar!

One of my creative challenges for myself this year is to explore making savory versions of foods that are usually associated with desserts. I’m someone whose taste buds always crave savory flavors over sweet, but I admit that my eyes are so often drawn to the beauty and visual delight of dessert confections. Just looking at a cupcake already brings me joy. But then I realized that there’s no reason for why savory foods can’t get that same visual attention, and that’s exactly what I set out to do with this savory cupcake recipe.

I’m glad that Cabot Creamery was willing to encourage my crazy idea, as their wonderful cheddars have become a regular tactic for bringing richness and cheesy goodness to my savory dishes. Cabot is a co-operative owned by farm families throughout New England & New York and 100% of profits go back to the farmers, which is another reason to love their stuff. I used their Vermont Sharp Cheddar Cheese in both the cake and frosting components of this recipe, which brought such a nice buttery tang that meant I didn’t even need to use butter in this recipe. With Cabot Creamery’s cheddars having 0 grams of lactose per serving, this savory cupcake recipe was developed with my lactose-sensitive pals in mind, too!

I hope you find these savory cupcakes as joy-inducing as I do! Let’s get into the details about these unique baked goodies and the ingredients you’ll need to make them for yourself.

Notes on the key ingredients for the cakes:

• Broccoli: I thought a savory cupcake ought to be veggie-forward to make it something that—unlike its sweet counterparts—could be enjoyed throughout the day while getting some nutritional goodness out of it too. For this recipe, I used the very tops of the broccoli florets only and chopped them super fine (as shown in the photo) such that the cakes would have an even and delicate texture throughout.

• Onion: A must to bring flavor and aromatics to any savory dish, I incorporated onion into my savory cake recipe too. I cut the onion into a fine dice and sautéed it with the broccoli before adding it to my cake batter so that it would basically dissolve into the background and all you would notice is the added flavor complexity from it.

• Cheddar: For me, cheese is what brings excitement to a savory dish; it’s what makes something ordinary feel rich and indulgent. So in order to make these savory cupcakes feel just as decadent and luxurious as sweet ones, I loaded this cake recipe with lots of Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar. Its boldly sharp flavor and smooth consistency are perfect for tying together the veggie and spice components of the recipe. I grated the bar using the standard holes of my box grater for this part of the recipe.

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Inspired by sweeter olive oil cakes, I leaned on a high-quality extra virgin olive oil to keep my savory cakes moist.

• Oat Milk: In keeping with the challenge to avoid ingredients containing lactose, I used a full-fat oat milk here. You could definitely sub with your favorite nut milks if desired.

• Curry Powder: This addition is what makes the cake interesting! I just love the combination of curry and cheddar together and I think the curry really takes the flavor profile of these out of breakfast muffin territory and into something more special. I used a Japanese style curry powder which brings a complex blend of spices without adding any spicy heat.

Notes on the key ingredients for the frosting: 

• Cauliflower: I made a cauliflower purée to act as the “frosting” for my savory cupcakes. Boiled cauliflower is easy to get smooth and spreadable in the food processor without adding extra cream and it is also so very foolproof (unlike potatoes that can get gummy if over-handled). I’ve been pretty obsessed with cauliflower lately because it’s light and absorbs other flavors so well. After boiling the cauliflower, you’ll want to squeeze out the excess moisture before adding it to the food processor to avoid your savory frosting being too runny; you don’t want to wring it bone-dry but you do want to give it a good squeeze until water is no longer actively dripping from it. 

• Leeks: These mild alliums will bring a savory-sweetness to the frosting without overpowering the gentle cauliflower. I used only the white and tender light green parts of the leek for this recipe to keep the frosting smooth as well as neutral in color.

• Garlic: I added just a touch of garlic to the frosting for savory complexity. A recipe with just one clove of garlic is unusual coming from me, but in this case, it is possible to overdo it; in my recipe testing I tried raw garlic and more cooked garlic and those tests were  too overwhelming for those whipped, light, frosting vibes. Trust me on this one. You’ll want to gently sauté the garlic with the leeks before combining it with the boiled cauliflower.

• Cheddar: Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar is what brings the main flavor here to this frosting. Since the cauliflower’s taste is pretty neutral, it leaves room for the delicious cheddar flavor to shine, so this frosting is very cheesy tasting indeed. I used a grater with small holes to finely grate the bar so that it would incorporate smoothly into the purée.

• Lemon Juice: This brings some brightness to the flavor of the frosting and enhances the buttery tang of the Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar.

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: This helps keep the purée smooth and emulsified.

• Miso Paste: I used a white miso here which is sweeter and milder than other types of miso. It brings an extra umami and saltiness, and it rounds out the savory flavor profile and makes it feel more complete. If you have a different type of miso, I suggest reducing the quantity; if miso paste is difficult for you to source, I recommend just adding a little extra salt, to taste.

Note that this recipe makes more than enough cheesy cauliflower frosting to do a casual coat over the tops of the cupcakes. But if you want to get your piping bags out and pipe a big ol’ swirl, or at least do a nice thick layer that you can decorate with pretty flowers like me, then this recipe will allow for those creative discretions!

How to Make Savory Veggie Cupcakes
with Cheesy Cauliflower Frosting

(Makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients for the Frosting

1 head cauliflower, cut into chunks
3/4 tsp kosher salt, divided
3/8 cup + 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup leeks (white and light green parts only), roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
6 oz Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar, finely grated
2 1/2 tsp white miso paste
1/4 cup lemon juice

Ingredients for the Cupcakes

2 cups broccoli florets chopped very fine
1 cup yellow onion, finely diced
2/3 cup + 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp Japanese curry powder
4 oz Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar, grated
2 eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup oat milk, at room temperature

---

Procedure

To make the frosting: Add cauliflower to a pot and cover with water. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Boil until very tender and almost falling apart (about 10-15 minutes). Drain and allow to cool.

Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet on medium-low heat. Add the leaks and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt. When they start to become fragrant, add the garlic. Continue cooking the aromatics, stirring occasionally, until they are tender (about 3–5 minutes).

Squeeze out any excess moisture from the cauliflower and add the cauliflower  to the food processor. Add the cooked aromatics. Pulse until the cauliflower resembles a grain-like texture. Add the miso paste and one-third of the cheddar. Process until the ingredients look combined. Repeat with the rest of the cheese in two more batches. Add the lemon juice and the remaining 3/8 cup olive oil and process the mixture until very smooth, using a spatula to scrape the sides as needed. Transfer the purée to a bowl or piping bag and set aside or, optionally, allow to chill in the fridge. (Note: I found it to be easier to pipe/spread after chilling briefly in the fridge.)

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a cupcake/muffin pan with paper baking cups.

Heat the skillet again on medium-low heat, with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onion and salt, and sauté until translucent. Add the broccoli and stir gently, cooking just until it becomes a vibrant green. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, garlic powder, cumin, and curry powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the cheddar and mix until it is evenly distributed.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and remaining 2/3 cup olive oil until well-combined. Add the cooled broccoli and onion mixture and stir to combine.

Gently fold the wet mixture into the dry one, until the liquid seems fully absorbed and no floury streaks remain. Mixture should be very thick. 

Divide the mixture evenly into the paper baking cups. Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for 15–17 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Leave the cupcakes in the pan for an additional 3 minutes to set before transferring to a cooling rack.

Once the cupcakes are cool enough to handle, they can be frosted and decorated as you wish! (The photos show the cupcakes decorated with nasturtium, wild radish flowers, and thyme.)

Thank you so much to Cabot Creamery for sponsoring this recipe! Visit their website to find out where you can get their delicious cheeses—which are naturally-aged and have 0 grams of lactose per serving—near you!