Fresh herbs are renowned for their effect on various dishes and rosemary is one that can be a bit divisive. However, in baked goods it adds a freshness that might be lost if less-potent herbs were exposed to the same heat. For this recipe rosemary adds a nice high note to rich and buttery shortbread in a salty twist on the sweet classic.

You might know shortbread only as the sweet variety, but savory shortbreads have long been valued in Europe. To make this version the amount of the sugar that you’d usually use for a shortbread is dramatically reduced. However there is still just a little sugar to balance out the flavors, which is not unusual for many cracker recipes.

To begin making this recipe cream together the butter and sugar and then add the dry ingredients. Then split the dough in half and roll each half into a log about 8″ or 9″ long. Wrap each one in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

Then just before baking, while the oven is heating up, slice the dough into 1/4″ rounds. If you have to step away from the kitchen return the rounds to the fridge so they don’t warm up too much.

The reason to chill the dough is that it contains so much butter that if you placed it into the oven at room temperature it would melt too quickly. When a high-butter dough melts during baking you can end up with flat cookies, burned edges, and raw centers.

To avoid disaster and to ensure uniform sizes and colors of cookies, chilled dough is best. Once chilled these only require 13 minutes to bake and you don’t need to grease the pan since the hefty amount of butter prevents the cookies (or crackers since they’re savory) from sticking to the baking sheet.

Once these have cooled off serve them with cream cheese, some chutney, a nice Havarti, or as part of a charcuterie board. These homemade rosemary shortbreads are an impressive starter to serve guests. And, they take only a fraction of the effort that making true crackers takes. Try this easy recipe and discover just how mouthwatering savory shortbreads can be.