Kalamata Olive Savoury Shortbread

At first glance you might mistake these for chocolate chip cookies. If you did, you'd get a bit of a rude shock when you tasted it. Savoury shortbread might sound like a strange idea, but this is more of a savoury cracker but with lots of butter to make it melt in your mouth. It's actually quite lovely. I first tried something like this at Maggie Beer's farm shop in Adelaide. I have very fond memories of that whole trip, especially the amazing kalamata olive biscuits I bought there. I decided that I had to try and make them for myself but with an extra hit of black pepper. I love eating my cheese with black pepper water crackers, so I had a feeling these savoury shortbread biscuits would work very well with some triple cream brie. I wasn't wrong.

I've never been too fond of olives, but I really loved the way the little chunks of kalamata olives worked in these buttery biscuits. There's not too much of it so the flavour is quite mild, and it gives them a unique taste that seems to work really well with soft mild cheeses. I started off with my regular sweet shortbread recipe, but added pepper, olives, a lot of sea salt flakes and took out most of the sugar. Making up a recipe out of nowhere usually has its problems and this first batch turn out way too salty, and a little too crumbly and dry. So I tested a different recipe, which was a little richer and less floury thanks to the addition of an egg yolk and took out half the salt. And they turned out pretty fantastic.

Yep, with a smear of triple cream brie these were incredibly moreish and great for an afternoon snack with a cup of tea. I thought A would be over the moon since I was baking something savoury, which you can probably tell is a bit of a rare occurence. But he's not a fan of shortbread and not that keen on olives either. Oh well, more cheese and biscuits for me! Though if you're really not an olive person you can definitely replace them with something else, maybe some crispy bacon? Damn, I definitely should have tried making a batch of these with bacon. Mmm bacon shortbread...

Obviously there's no need to get cheese involved, these biscuits taste perfectly good on their own. Don't be deterred by the sugar in this recipe, it's just there to balance out the flavour. This is definitely not a sweet cookie. I might even add even more pepper the next time I make them, I can never have too much pepper. These would also be great with some of that roasted garlic I raved about not too long ago. The reason I made these shortbread biscuits this weekend was because they were so quick and easy to whip up, and I needed something like that with the limited free time I've had recently. It's a great little snack to make at the last minute and I'd definitely recommend it even if you're not super keen on olives.

Kalamata Olive & Black Pepper Savoury Shortbread
(makes about 60 biscuits, loosely adapted from this cocoa nib shortbread recipe)
1/3 cup (about 100g) well-drained, pitted and finely diced kalamata olives (if you're not a fan of olives you can replace with an equal amount of crispy bacon)
2 1/2 cups (approx 300g) plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp salt (can be substituted with crushed sea salt flakes)
3 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
280g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 tbsp white sugar
1 large egg yolk

Prepare the dough ahead of time, it will need to chill for a bit. Sift flour, bicarb, and salt into a medium bowl, mix in pepper and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 mins. Add egg yolk and beat to combine, scraping sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure it mixes evenly. Beat in dry ingredients at a medium-low speed and then fold in chopped olives. The dough should be fairly easy to handle, but if it's a little sticky you should dust your hands with flour before handling. Turn out mixture on to a lightly floured surface and pat dough to bring it together. Split into two and roll them both into logs, about 4cm diameter. Wrap well in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour. You can refrigerate this dough for up to a week, or freeze it for up to a month (defrost overnight in the fridge).

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two (or 3-4 if you have them) baking sheets with baking paper. Take dough out of fridge and unwrap. Use a sharp knife to cut rounds, about half a centimeter thick. Place cut dough on prepared baking sheets (leave about 1.5 cm space for the cookies to expand), keep prepared sheets chilled while you cut the remaining dough and while you are baking the other trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. (If baking two trays at once, make sure you switch the top and bottom trays around half way through the baking time) Leave on the tray for 5 minutes to cool and then gently transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days.