#31 Crescent Cheese Cookies 1973

Crescent Cheese Cookies--prettier than they are tasty.
I left off the powdered sugar dusting for the photo.

Cookies with no sugar? It is not the same confection if all the sugar is powdered and sifted over the top. Feels like they're putting one over on me. This "cookie" is dough and filling. That's just not a real cookie.

It is the dough that has no sugar. As if rolling out tiny pie crusts, you roll out 3" rounds or squares of dough, or cut a larger rolled piece of dough with cookie cutters. You put a half teaspoon of jam on each dough shape. Then, you fold the dough to enclose the jam. Crimp hard--trust me, the jam does not appreciate confinement and tries to escape. Then, roll into a crescent shape. They look like potstickers, except they are baked and drier on the outside.

An unusual dough ingredient is "pot cheese," which also goes by the name "basket cheese." "Farmer's cheese" also is an acceptable substitute. Pot cheese is a dry curd that breaks into tiny bits if sieved, but who wants to force rubbery cheese through a sieve? It breaks into little bits just the same when pulsed in a food processor. That's my preferred method of pulverizing the curds.

Maury Island blueberry jam is the best part.

I still don't know what effect cheese has on dough, but while researching this very question I was amazed to learn that eating cheese helps you sleep. It contains tryptophan, the same amino acid in turkey, that relieves stress and induces sleep. In my Italian family, a plate of cheese often accompanied dessert. No wonder those uncles fell asleep right at the dinner table.

Even more exciting, I learned that different cheeses cause different types of dreams. Participants in a British study who ate cheddar cheese tended to dream about celebrities. Those who ate Blue Stilton had very vivid dreams, such as one study participant who dreamed about vegetarian crocodiles who were upset they couldn't eat children. And I swear I am not making this up. (Thank you, Dave Barry.)

I wonder what kinds of dreams are caused by pot cheese?

Where was I?

Jam wants to escape the dough during baking.

Oh, yeah. The verdict on these "cookies"? Glorified pop tarts. I used the rest of the dough as a pie crust.

The recipe is here.