6 Great Artisan Cheese and Cookies Pairings

A cheese board wouldn’t be complete without some fancy crackers to complement each wedge—but there’s a sweeter source for crunch that belongs in your arsenal of accouterments. Gourmet cookies made with thoughtful ingredients can also add textural contrast and complex flavor. Unlike cheese pairings with honey or holiday candy that bring a sugary profile to the party, these cookies are indulgent yet not too sweet. Here are the gourmet cookie and artisan cheese pairings to consider for your next board.

34 Degrees Sweet Lemon Crisps + Chèvre

34 Degrees Sweet Lemon Crisps and Chèvre

34 Degrees crackers are a monger favorite thanks to their mild flavor and featherlight texture that shows off just about any cheese to an advantage. The company recently dropped its new line of Sweet Crisps, and the hint of citrus and signature crispness of the lemon edition matches well with fresh or lightly aged goat’s milk cheeses. Top these wafer-thin, snackable rounds with a few crumbles of your favorite chevre or a round of Bûcheron, then spoon some Meyer lemon marmalade on top to brighten up the bite.

Real Treat Salted Caramel Shorties with Fennel + Triple Creme

Real Treat Salted Caramel Shorties with Fennel + Kunik Triple Creme

Flavors in the anise family can be polarizing—I’m not the biggest fan—but when used in the right way, an ingredient like fennel seed can enhance and uplift. These tender shortbreads from Canadian bakery Real Treat are rich with browned butter and chewy bits of caramel, but flaky sea salt and crunchy fennel seeds add a lightness to these tender, decadent shortbreads. Serve them with slabs of lush, buttery triple crème, like Brillat-Savarin, Mt. Tam, or Kunik. Read more about Kunik.

Lark Pistachio Cherry Sablés + Ossau Iraty

Lark Pistachio Cherry Sablés and Ossau Iraty

I can’t take credit for this pairing, but I wish I’d dreamed it up myself. A cheese colleague served a spread of nibbles at a meeting last year, and these two elements together were by far my favorite bite of the day. Sablés from Lark Fine Foods have a sandy, yielding texture studded with crunchy bits of pistachio and pleasantly chewy dried cherries (an underrated cookie ingredient). That textural contrast and fruity, nutty flavor are perfect with the smooth, grassy profile of Ossau Iraty, a French Basque sheep’s milk cheese. Add some welcome acidity to this combo with a spoonful of calamansi marmalade.

Firehook Graham Crackers + Clothbound Cheddar

Firehook Graham Crackers and Clothbound Cheddar

Humble graham crackers find life beyond the campfire when paired with a savory, complex cheese like clothbound cheddar. Firehook Bakery’s new grahams have a light, crisp texture and just a touch of honey and cinnamon to let the cheese shine. If you’re rocking a mellower English wedge, consider adding an apple cider caramel to the pairing, while American clothbound cheddars with more bite benefit from a dollop of chestnut honey.

Effie’s Walnut Biscuits + Aged Gouda

Effie’s Oatcakes are a cheese board staple for good reason. They’re nutty, substantial, just a little sweet, and match with subtle and assertive flavors. But Effie’s Homemade has a whole line of biscuits incorporating different nuts and grains, and the walnut edition is my favorite of the bunch. For one, they’ve got a nutty crunch shot through with little gems of tangy dried cranberry and just a hint of sweet fennel. For another, they’re incredibly versatile, complementing cheeses from creamy bries to punchy blues—but pairing them with a shard of crystalline, toffee-sweet aged Gouda might be my favorite. Drizzle with caramel or dark honey to gild this lily of a pairing.

Rustic Bakery Chocolate Cacao Nib Shortbread + Blue Cheese

Rustic Bakery Chocolate Cacao Nib Shortbread and Blue Cheese

Blue cheese and chocolate is a tried-and-true pairing, and Rustic Bakery’s crumbly, deeply-flavored dark chocolate shortbreads are now my favorite way to combine chocolate and cheese. I received these cookies as part of a tasting box pairing them with a salty, buttery Danish blue, and they were so good I saved the empty box for reference. These only slightly sweet shorties have just six ingredients, two of which are luxe dark cocoa powder and crunchy bits of cacao nib. They’re the ideal foil for a crumble of peppery Birchrun Blue or a slab of fudgy Bleu d'Auvergne.