Thumbprint Cheese Wafers with Pecans
If you’re a fan of cheese straws you’ll love these cheese wafers which have a great flavor from the salted butter and extra sharp cheddar cheese. A food processor makes quick work shredding cheese and blending the cheese, butter and flour for this recipe. Serve plain or with hot pepper jelly / jam of choice for a little cocktail or shower nibble. Makes about 36 wafers
Servings: 36 wafers
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 8 oz block extra sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- Hot pepper jelly or jam/ jelly of choice
- Optional: 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (for heat)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Pulse flour, cheese and butter in a food processor at 5-second intervals until dough forms a ball, about 1 minute.
- Shape tablespoons of dough into 1-inch balls and roll each in chopped pecans.
- Place the balls 2 inches apart on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Use thumb or wooden spoon handle to make indention in center of each ball.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes before baking.
- Bake in preheated oven in batches until light golden brown, 15 – 18 minutes.
- Remove from oven, press indentation again slightly. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
- Store in airtight container.
- Spoon 1/2 teaspoon jelly into each indentation right before serving.
Notes
- After rolling ball of dough into pecans, make indentation into ball while still in bowl of pecans, so excess fall back into bowl rather than on baking sheet. Also the bottoms of wafers get some extra pecans pressed into the surface which gives them a great texture and more pecan flavor.
- I rarely use salted butter in recipes, but it makes all the difference here.
- Shred your cheese off the block for this recipe. Bagged pre-shredded cheese has added ingredients with anti-clumping properties that help keep cheese shreds separate, so it doesn’t always melt completely nor is it as moist as cheese you shred yourself off the block.
- Make sure your cheese is very cold before using the shredding disc on your food processor. You can place your block of cheese in the freezer for 20 minutes for easier shredding.
- If you’re a fan of the sweet heat of hot pepper jelly you’ll love these, but strawberry, fig or apricot jam would be good here too. My husband prefers these as plain cheese wafers.
- To enjoy as a cheese wafer without a thumbprint and jelly, make a criss cross pattern with a fork before baking.
- May be baked ahead and frozen for up to 3 months. Flash freeze wafers then wrap well in plastic. Let thaw then fill with pepper jelly or jam of choice right before serving.