The holidays are a season of sweets, for me, and nothing encapsulates the feeling of the season better than stepping inside from a cold day to the smell of warm baking cookies.

So when the combination of Gourmet Magazine’s 50 year retrospective on the cookie came up, I got excited.  Even more so when Andrea proposed a cookie challenge – 12 cookies, 12 days.  Each of us intrepid cookie-baking souls would pick our favorite recipes from the Gourmet list, and blog about them.  And so here a week and a half of what can only be called a cookie extravaganza can begin!

My first pick – the Cottage Cheese Cookie.

Originally published in 1962, these sounded a bit odd – cottage cheese mixed in with the flour and sugar and butter.  I was reminded of a recipe that a roomate of mine from college had used to make for cottage cheese panckaes, and excited to see how the moist cheese worked in a baked form.

All I can say – fabulously.

I love a subtle cookie, and these are perfectly that – moist and crumbly, slightly sweet with a vague tang to them.  The next time I might give them a slight sprinkle of cinnamon before baking just to punch up the flavor, but I’m in love just as they are.

Cottage Cheese Cookies
adapted from Gourmet, 1962

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt 

Preheat the oven to 375F. In an electric mixer, cream together the softened butter and cottage cheese until well incorporated. Blend in thoroughly the sugar, vanilla, and egg until fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour in two batches and mix until the dough comes together. Grab a tablespoon of dough at a time and drop onto a parchment-covered cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes, until nicely golden brown.

Take a look at my fellow bakers choices at their sites:

Jerry at Cooking by the Seat of my Pants, Ben at What’s Cooking. Judy at No Fear Entertaining, Sandy at At the Baker’s Bench, Courtney at Coco Cooks, Kelly at Sass and Veracity, and Andrea at Andrea’s Recipes.

Come back tomorrow for Cashew Prailine Cookies!