This Is How I Cook

menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • About Abbe Odenwalder
    • Contact
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index from A-Z
    • Breakfast
      • Casseroles
      • Coffee Cake
      • Waffles
    • Starters/Appetizers
    • Main Course
      • Meat
      • Pasta
      • Poultry
      • Sandwiches
      • Seafood and Fish
    • Soup
    • Sauce
    • Side Dishes
      • Potatoes
      • Vegetables
    • Salads
    • Drinks
    • Breads
      • Muffins and Quick Breads
      • Sweet Rolls
    • Snacks
    • Pickles and Preserves
    • Dessert
      • Cake
      • Candy
      • Pie
    • Cookies and Bars
    • Chocolate
    • Asian Recipes
    • Mexican Recipes
    • Jewish Recipes
    • Italian Recipes
    • Family Favorites
    • Roundup Recipes
  • Denver & Beyond
    • Denver
    • And Beyond
search icon
Homepage link
  • Home
  • About Abbe Odenwalder
    • Contact
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index from A-Z
    • Breakfast
      • Casseroles
      • Coffee Cake
      • Waffles
    • Starters/Appetizers
    • Main Course
      • Meat
      • Pasta
      • Poultry
      • Sandwiches
      • Seafood and Fish
    • Soup
    • Sauce
    • Side Dishes
      • Potatoes
      • Vegetables
    • Salads
    • Drinks
    • Breads
      • Muffins and Quick Breads
      • Sweet Rolls
    • Snacks
    • Pickles and Preserves
    • Dessert
      • Cake
      • Candy
      • Pie
    • Cookies and Bars
    • Chocolate
    • Asian Recipes
    • Mexican Recipes
    • Jewish Recipes
    • Italian Recipes
    • Family Favorites
    • Roundup Recipes
  • Denver & Beyond
    • Denver
    • And Beyond
×
Home » Starters/Appetizers

Published: Dec 17, 2021 · Updated: Mar 27, 2025 · May contain affiliate links

Olive Biscuits Scourtins

Jump to Recipe· 3.5 from 2 reviews
Share this recipe!

Looking for recipes with olives? These olive scourtins or sweet and salty shortbreads studded with olives, are perfect to enjoy with wine and cheese!

Olive Scourtins (Recipes with olives) this …

As a kid I hated olives, particularly olive appetizers. But yes, I do love posting recipes with olives!

Remember these recipes with olives?

Those dough wrapped things from the 70's? Or olives sprinkled on top of every appetizer known to man. Olives on pizza. Total yuk! And olives in martinis. Didn't like either!

It seemed all those olives came out of a can or jar, and I could not stomach them.

Boy, how times have changed. And so have olives!

After discovering olives at the olive bar, I quickly became an olive fanatic. Castelvetrano olives? Oh I love those green thick fruity ones.

And olives and oranges and chilies? That mixture is my fave. You know, the ones with the little raisins in there, too.

Salty black olives and Nicoise olives and my oh my, a Cerignola olive is an amazing buttery olive that is rich and crisp.

I'm not so enamored with Nicoise olives but they are great in a Nicoise salad or made into a tapenade.

Manzanilla olives are crisp and often studded with pimentos or garlic or almonds. Yes, I can eat a few of those!

So I'm past the point of having a fear of olives, in fact, I say bring them on.

Which might be why these olive biscuits really got me excited.

Sweet and salty-one of my favorite combinations in food. Pair that with cheese and I'm in heaven.

olive biscuits

What is a scourtin?

This shortbread olive appetizer is known in France as scourtins.

A scourtin is actually an ancient olive press used to mash cured olives.

The leftover olive pieces were apparently used in making these heavenly shortbread olive cookies!

A specialty in the town of Nyons, France, a town which has had a Jewish population since the 13th century.

I don't know if this is a Jewish recipe but it is quite interesting to think it might be.

I stumbled upon these olive cookies when looking for Hanukkah recipes and had to try them.

These little scourtins cookies are perfect with a glass of wine, a wedge of cheese and some fig or apricot jam.

An easy and simple appetizer that had my friends asking for the recipe.

Since I'm guessing that many of you have had the flour out and presumably have been baking cookies, my thought is that you might want to bake a batch of these for your holiday happy hour.

Quick to make and then easily placed on a platter for your friends to devour, I can almost guarantee that they have never had an olive biscuit like this.

This savory sweet shortbread loaded with salty olives and sprinkled with salt is the perfect appetizer to eat with a glass of hearty red wine.

olive biscuits

Perfect for chilly weather, these scourtins disappear fast.

Spread with a bit of fig jam and topped with a bite of St. Andre cheese or just use Brie if you'd like; this simple cookie recipe with olives is great for gifting and great for serving to your favorite friends or family.

How to Make Scourtins:

Just like shortbread this recipe begins with softened unsalted butter that is creamed with confectioner's sugar. Add in 1 T of olive oil and then incorporate your flour.

Coarsely chop your olives of choice-the recipe calls for green Picholine olives which are briny and firm, with fruity, floral notes.

Mix those with Moroccan picholine olives, a varietal grown in Morocco.

Or if you are lucky look for black Nyons olives but are hard to find.

I do like the look of green and black olives in these savory biscuits.

Please make sure to chop them coarsely, because I think the flavor will be better and they will also look prettier. I chopped mine a bit too fine!

Mix the chopped olives with a bit of fennel seed and stir that into your dough.

Make a cylinder and wrap it up just as you were making cookie dough and chill it in the fridge.

When ready to bake, slice and sprinkle with coarse salt and presto-15 minutes later, you have an awesome olive appetizer.

olive scourtins

These store well in a zip-lock bag and can be frozen and used as needed.

Enjoy these salty sweet scourtins. They are the perfect way to convert non-olive lovers to olive lovers, I must say.

Add these to your next meat and cheese platter and see what disappears first!

Need a Few More Recipes with Olives?

Greek Olive Bread Rolls

Olive Bread Rolls

How To Make Olive Bar Chicken

Olive Bar chicken

7 Layer Bean Dip (Antipasto Style)

7 Layer Bean Dip antipasto style

I'd Love it if You'd Follow Me on Pinterest and Pin and Share:

Recipes with Olives - Scourtins

 

Print

Recipe

clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Olive Appetizers

Olive Biscuits Scourtins

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 3.5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Abbe Odenwalder
  • Prep Time: 15 Minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 Minutes
  • Total Time: 30 Minutes
  • Yield: 24 1x
  • Category: Appetizers
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: French
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Description

These sweet and savory biscuits, made with olives and sprinkled with salt go great on your next meat and cheese platter. So good, you will find yourself making these little shortbreads again and again!


Ingredients

Units Scale

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup cured black Picholine or Moroccan black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped, drained
½ teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon sea salt for sprinkling


Instructions

In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until the butter is soft and pale yellow. Add the olive oil and mix well. Add the flour and mix gently but thoroughly, until the dough is smooth, then add the olives and fennel seed and mix until they are incorporated into the dough.

Remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface and mold into a cylinder, about 1 inch in diameter and about 11 inches long. Wrap with waxed or parchment paper and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a very sharp knife, slice the dough into ¼-inch rounds and put them about ½ inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with the sea salt.

Bake until golden, about 15–20 minutes, or until slightly brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.


Notes

Yes, these can be frozen! And they keep quite a while in a zip-lock bag!

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @this_is_how_i_cook on Instagram and hashtag it #thisishowicook


Share this recipe!

More Starters/Appetizers

  • Pepperoncini Philadelphia cream cheese dip recipe
    Easy Pepperoncini Philadelphia Cream Cheese Dip Recipe
  • appetizers examples 25 best
    25 Quick and Easy Appetizers For The Best Party
  • bay scallop recipe in scallop shell
    Easy Bay Scallop Recipe with Lemon and Garlic
  • Spicy feta dip recipes in oven proof bowl with side dish of green olives
    Greek Sweet and Spicy Feta Dip Recipes

Comments

    I Love Comments! Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

  1. Lyn says

    May 10, 2024 at 4:01 pm

    Delicious...great site. Thanks Abbe. Now the challenge for me is to get these little beauties into the oven before I sample any more uncooked. Guests for dinner tonight might be getting a dry rice cracker with a slice of olive!!!
    Cheers from Aotearoa (New Zealand)

    Reply
    • Abbe says

      May 10, 2024 at 7:56 pm

      So glad you like them Lyn. One of those recipes that was different than anything I'd had before. LOL! Save some for yourself! Can't wait to visit New Zealand!

      Reply
  2. Catherine says

    January 08, 2024 at 5:51 am

    These taste really peculiar! I don't know what I expected, but sugar does not go with olives.

    Maybe if I were American they'd taste better.

    Reply
    • Abbe says

      January 08, 2024 at 11:11 am

      Hmm. Sorry you didn't like. I love sweet and salty! But this isn't an American recipe. It is actually a French recipe with a long history. Perhaps it's the olive you used?

      Reply
  3. Sharon says

    December 22, 2022 at 11:13 am

    I made these for neighbors and they were a huge hit. I made them the day before and then just baked them off just before my guests arrived. This recipe will be added to my entertaining list.

    Reply
    • Abbe says

      December 22, 2022 at 11:49 am

      Thanks Sharon. We love them, too!

      Reply
  4. Chef Mimi says

    October 14, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    These look fantastic. But why in the world is sugar in the dough? I love picholines. First discovered them in France.

    Reply
    • Abbe Odenwalder says

      October 16, 2022 at 1:41 pm

      @Chef Mimi, They are mixed in with a shortbread type dough. I did not change this and I found it in a very reputable cookbook from Joan Nathan. I did add some salt on top. They are really good!

      Reply
  5. mjskitchen says

    December 21, 2021 at 8:39 pm

    Bobby and I love olives and always have a Costco size jar in the fridge. So these cookies AND that olives breadroll are nice treats for us. Both look wonderful and two totally different ways to enjoy olives. Thanks!

    Reply
  6. Gloria Roa Baker says

    December 17, 2021 at 5:27 pm

    These look absolutely yummy and beautiful !!!

    Reply
  7. Chef Mimi says

    December 17, 2021 at 2:19 pm

    These are fabulous! I’ve made savory quick breads and savory biscotti, but I really like the short bread look of these! I bet they’re so good!

    Reply
Abbe Odenwalder - The Great American Recipe Season 2

Welcome!

You may have spotted me on Season 2 of the PBS series “The Great American Recipe.” Being part of a group labeled “the best home cooks in America” is a lot to live up to, but I’m up for the challenge! I'm glad you are here and hope I can set a place for you at my table!

More about me

Popular Posts

  • Lots of Cheese QuesadillasCrispy Mini Cheese Quesadillas - Easy Party Recipe January 22, 2020
  • New Mexican Green ChileEasy Green Chile New Mexican Style October 23, 2019
  • Pepperidge Farm stuffingDelicious and Easy Pepperidge Farm Stuffing November 19, 2019
  • Cornbread Blueberry Bread PuddingEasy Cornbread Bread Pudding with Blueberries February 13, 2020
  • Peruvian Green SauceAmazing Peruvian Green Sauce January 7, 2021

Footer

↑ back to top

Notices

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

© 2011-2025 This is How I Cook. All Rights Reserved.

olive scourtins