Sweet Sage Cookies Recipe

Fresh herbs give flavor to these cookies, a specialty of The Inn a Jackson in Jackson, New Hampshire. Reprinted with the permission of the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Bureau.

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups of all purpose flour

2 Tbsp. Snipped fresh sage or 2 tsp. dried sage or lemon thyme or rosemary, crushed

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

3 Tbsp. Milk

1 egg white

Preparation:

Stir together flour, sugar and cornmeal in a medium mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling. Stir in snipped or crushed herbs. Add milk and stir with a fork to combine. Form mixture into a ball and knead dough until smooth.

Divide the dough in half. Roll half of the dough at a time on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch round or oval cookie cutter. Combine egg white and 1 Tbsp. of water in a small bowl. Brush cutouts with the mixture. If desired, place one or two small, fresh sage leaves on each cutout, and brush the leaves with egg white mixture.

Sprinkle cutouts with sugar, and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375-degree oven about 7 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire racks and cool. Makes about 32 cookies.

Why sage recipes?  Our neighbor has been passing along the herbs he is growing in his garden and I needed  few recipes to try.