Blue Cheese Pecan Shortbread

These are wonderful little cracker/shortbread appetizers and go really well with the cocktail hour.

1 pound Blue Cheese, preferably Point Reyes Original Blue
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 pound flour
1 ¼ tsp Kosher salt
Pinch White pepper
4 ounces pecan pieces, untoasted; or walnuts

Place blue cheese and softened butter in mixer with paddle attachment and mix just to combine.

Combine dry ingredients in another bowl, excluding nuts. Add dry ingredients to the butter and cheese. Mix just to combine and do not over-mix. Add nuts and combine.
Turn mixture out onto work surface and finish working the flour into the dough. Divide evenly and shape into logs. Wrap in plastic and freeze until ready to use.

If you plan to bake right away, refrigerate blocks of dough until very firm, about 4-8 hours. If the dough is too warm and soft, the shortbreads will spread and “melt” when they bake.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees conventional or 300 degrees convection.

Slice and bake shortbreads on parchment lined baking sheet until golden brown on the bottom, about 24-30 minutes.