Cocktail Hour at Copywriters’ Kitchen: Frozen Whiskey Sours and Savory Cheddar Wafers

It’s Friday afternoon. Let’s be civilized, unplug all electronic devices and sit down for a proper cocktail.

I’m making frozen whiskey sours. They’re heavenly with the Savory Cheddar Wafers I just pulled from the oven.

Relax. Monday morning you can get up an hour earlier and check your Tweets. Work will, of course, be waiting. And the economy—well, lets not talk about it.

Á propos, purists recommend Sazerac Rye but these Sours taste lovely even with cheap bourbon.

Let’s put on Fela Kuti and throw back a few…

Frozen Whiskey Sours

For each cocktail, you’ll need:

2 ounces bourbon whiskey
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon powdered sugar or more to taste
1 maraschino cherry plus 1 teaspoon maraschino juice
3-4 ice cubes
Thin lemon slice, cut in half

1. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend on high speed for 30 seconds.
2. Pour into an on-the-rocks glass—the cherry will be battered, but still recognizable—and garnish with lemon slice.
3. Repeat.

Savory Cheddar Wafers

These are adapted from the wonderful circa 1976 Junior League California Heritage Cookbook of my childhood. They. Are. Heaven.

The neat thing—as we used to say in 1976—is you can shape the wafer dough into logs, wrap in wax paper and store in the fridge pretty much indefinitely.

Then when you and the gals—or guys—are ready for cocktails, simply thin slice the dough and pop them in the oven. In less than 10 minutes you’ll have hot, savory wafers.

Even if you don’t remember burnt orange Crockpots, maxi-coats and Peter Frampton, you’ll love Savory Cheddar Wafers—the perfect foil for Whiskey Sours or your favorite winter cocktail.

Savory Cheddar Wafers

1 cube unsalted butter
½ pound cheddar cheese, grated and softened to room temperature
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
around ¼ cup poppy seeds

1. Put butter and grated cheese in a medium bowl and let sit until softened.





2. When soft, whip butter and cheese together until creamed.





3. In a medium bowl—or directly in a large Pyrex measuring cup, my preference—mix flour, salt and cayenne pepper.
4. Add flour mixture to butter and cheese mixture, blending with a mixer, a wooden spoon or your fingers.



5. Gather dough together and press into a ball.





6. Divide dough into two portions.
7. Roll one portion of dough into roll about 1” in diameter.



8. Wrap dough roll in wax paper and twist ends.
9. Repeat with other portion of dough.



10. Chill dough in refrigerator for at least 4 hours—to speed chilling time, place in freezer for ½ hour—or until ready to bake.
11. When ready to serve, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
12. Slice roll into ¼” slices and place 1 inch apart on cookie sheet.





13. Sprinkle slices with poppy seeds.





14. Bake for 6-8 minutes.
15. Cool for a minute or two on the cookie sheet, then remove wafers to a plate.





16. Serve immediately or cool completely and store in a tightly covered container.

Makes about 3 dozen wafers.