Ingredient: mild Gouda cheese cut in 30 -1/2 inch cubes

It’s autumn and that means it’s grape season. Grapes come in a variety of colors and types such as seedless or with seeds, table grapes or wine grapes. One thing I’ve noticed on the internet is that there are unlimited recipes for everything imaginable using grapes except cookie recipes.

Red grape and gouda cheese cookies are a gourmet twist on traditional baking that transforms classic charcuterie elements into portable, sweet and savory pastry.

I have been doing a bit of recipe development to come up with a cookie recipe that used grapes without ending up with a soggy mess due to the water content of grapes. The approach I took was to first make a thick jelly from the grapes for the filling keeping it slightly tart. To give the cookie some texture, I used oatmeal and pepita seeds in the dough. By forming it into the classic ‘thumbprint’ shape gives you a nice depression for the jelly, gouda and fresh grapes. The experiment worked out quite well giving a very unique seasonal cookie.

Grape based baking such as crisp, tarts, cake, galette or pie strictly aligns with the fall grape harvest but since grapes are available all year long its nice to have lots of choices to make use of them, right?!

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Grape & Gouda Cookies

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Course

dessert

Cuisine

Canadian

Keyword

Grape & Gouda Cookies

Servings

MetricUS Imperial

Ingredients

Grape Jelly Filling

• 250 gm fresh red seedless grapes, halved
• 1 Tbsp butter,
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Pinch of cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Cookie Dough

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup pepita seeds Alternately you could use chopped walnuts or almonds.
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla

Gouda

• 100 gm mild Gouda cheese cut in 30 -1/2 inch cubes
• 200 gm (about 90) red seedless grapes, halved (need 3 per cookie)

Course dessert Cuisine Canadian Keyword Grape & Gouda Cookies Servings MetricUS Imperial Ingredients Grape Jelly Filling 250 gm fresh red seedless grapes, halved 1 Tbsp butter, 1/4 cup water 2 Tbsp sugar 3 Tbsp cornstarch 1 tsp lemon juice Pinch of cinnamon pinch of salt Cookie Dough 2 cups flour 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup pepita seeds Alternately you could use chopped walnuts or almonds. 1 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla Gouda 100 gm mild Gouda cheese cut in 30 -1/2 inch cubes 200 gm (about 90) red seedless grapes, halved (need 3 per cookie)

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Instructions

Grape Jelly Filling

1. Wash & halve the grapes. In a small saucepan, combine all filling ingredients. Stir everything together & bring it to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Allow mixture to simmer for about 5-7 minutes until grapes soften & mixture thickens. When cooked, pour through a fine mesh strainer to extract the grape skins. Set aside until ready to use.

Cookie Dough

1. In a bowl, combine flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt & pepita seeds. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter & sugars until light & fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes.
3. Beat in eggs & vanilla until fully combined. Gradually add dry mixture to wet ingredients, mixing until JUST combined. Place dough in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Assembly/Baking

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you prefer a bit of a fancier look for the cookies, use large paper muffin cups and just set them directly on the baking sheet.
2. Halve the 42 grapes needed for topping the cookies. Cut gouda cheese into 1/2-inch cubes.
3. Using a cookie scoop, scoop dough either directly on the parchment paper or into the paper cups. In the center of each cookie make a fairly deep depression. Place grape jelly filling in the depression (don’t be afraid to use a generous amount of grape jelly in each cookie. Since the ‘jelly’ is very thick it adds flavor but doesn’t run out during baking). Top it with a cube of gouda cheese. Next place 3 grape halves over the cheese.
4. Bake cookies for about 12-15 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. Remove the cookies from the oven & allow to cook on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Remove paper cups (if using) to show the fluted edge.

Recipe Notes

• Cookies containing grapes soften after a few days due to moisture migration. Water inside the fruit slowly moves out into the drier cookie dough. Sugar in the cookies then traps this extra water, making the whole cookie soft and moist. Make sure to store cookies in the refrigerator & it is best to use them within a couple of days due to the softening of the cookie.