When I started this project, I had a few pieces of the puzzle: 

• I love food 
• Savoring food & savoring life
• Savory food – lots of flavors
• Ikigai – finding purpose 
• Learning new things 
• Being creative
• Being okay with failure 
• Documenting the process in some kind of virtual log book

But, I was missing the border – something to give all these things some structure, parameters, guide lines, guard rails, a back bone, substance. 

Many creative people (I assume) find that focusing on a specific prompt, topic, etc. can actually help bolster your creativity. In a parallel vein of thought, choice overload theory states that reducing the number of options makes it easier to choose which one you actually want. 

I think one of the reasons why I dragged my feet on finding a way to bring creativity into my life is because there are so many ways to be creative. I’ve tried a lot of them! Drawing, painting, photography, embroidery, jewelry making. 

I enjoyed (and occasionally still dabble) those mediums and crafts. But they all fell victim to the same lack of structure and easily fell to the wayside. 

So, with the food-piece in mind, I decided to follow the Julie/Julia Project model. 

Loosely, that is. 

I wanted to focus on one specific category of food and explore everything in that category. Learn from experts in that category. Make their recipes and document the process. Maybe get good enough that I can develop my own recipes. 

And low-and-behold, one day, I knew what food niche I wanted to explore: 

Savory cookies. 

I saw a picture on instagram (shoutout to @helloitsjordansmith) of savory thumbprint cookies: semolina cookie with a dollop of tomato jam and a basil glaze. It was so out of place from all the other holiday cookies I had been seeing on my thread that I stopped in my tracks. 

Earlier in the holiday season, I had made a recipe from @rachelgurjar in Bon Appetit’s holiday cookie issue for Chili Cheese Cookies – shortbread cookies made with cheddar cheese, the outside coated in gochugaru flakes and demerara sugar. They were incredibly addicting and a wonderful change of pace from otherwise sweet cookies. 

As someone who loves a generous sprinkle of Maldon on chocolate chip cookies or the salty umami miso lends to an oatmeal cookie, the idea of diving deeper into the world of savory cookies piqued my interest. 

So here we are. 

Over the course of 2024, I want to know all there is about savory cookies. So far, I’ve found over 60 potential savory cookie candidates (some with recipes, some without) and already have some new ideas percolating (although I imagine recipe development may have to hold off until I’ve found my footing). I’ve bought 9 new cookbooks, many focused on the art of the cookie, and combed my other cookbooks for additional savory cookie inspiration. 

A cookie is like a blank canvas or an empty roll of film. It focuses my efforts but leaves plenty of room for interpretation. Cookies take many shapes and flavors, can have any number of toppings, sprinkles, glazes, coatings. Cookies can be varying levels of difficulty to prepare, include few ingredients or many, take minutes or days to prepare. 

Savory flavors also present a bounty of exploratory opportunity. They can be achieved by adding spices, cheeses, herbs, nuts, seeds, sauces, and pastes. Different techniques can introduce deeper savory notes, from browning butter to cooking your flour when you make a roux for gravy. Sometimes all you need is a little more salt to coax out the underlying savory qualities that otherwise may have been missed. Savory flavors can be paired with non-savory flavors to really make a dish sing. 

Cookies and savory flavors both present a wide spectrum that independently would be intimidating to navigate. Where would you begin? But intersect the two, and you open up a narrower, but still plentiful, space for creative exploration. Ripe for innovation, but not so new that you lack sufficient guidance from previous pioneers. 

Savory cookies also present a unique challenge. People don’t expect savory in a cookie format, so the resulting cognitive dissonance could polarize certain palettes. It’s unclear if they fall into the appetizer or the dessert category, or both. They certainly belong to the snack category based on their size and because snacks don’t discriminate between sweet or savory. 

Either way, it won’t just be a journey for me. It will be a journey for those around me who get to taste-test and provide their thoughts (good or bad) on each cookie I tackle. It will certainly be an experience for my partner who is very lactose intolerant as many, many savory cookie recipes contain cheese (apologies in advance). Hopefully, I’ll meet new people along the way and find connections through the sharing and eating of savory cookies. Maybe I’ll even find ways to give back to my community through savory cookies (dare I say a bake sale?)

So let’s start! 

Chapter 1: Savory Cookies