These are delicious, easy to make, light flaky mouthfuls of crunch, just like cheese straws only more fun, as you can use any shaped cookie cutter you like.
Cheese Biscuits
Ingredients:
- 100 g/4oz finely grated cheese
- 50 g/2oz self-raising flour
- 25 g/1oz soft butter
- pinch of cayenne pepper
Directions:
For the cheese you can use a mature cheddar or 80g mild cheddar with 20g Parmesan cheese. Put everything into a bowl and rub in, squish and knead for about 5 minutes until it comes together into a soft dough. It will do, just as you are about to give up hope of it doing so unaided. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 2.5mm/ 1/8″ thick and cut into whatever fancy shapes you have cutters for. Bake at 200C/400F for 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool on a rack. This amount disappears very quickly, even before you’ve turned your back on them sometimes, they’re very light and moreish, so I usually make double or triple quantities for the festivals.
The cheese biscuits go down very well with adults too. At the last birthday party one father polished off a whole plateful, rather than sample the birthday cake. They would make a great accompaniment to drinks before dinner. You could cut them into long strips and give one twist to make them into cheese straws, then sprinkle them with extra Parmesan or find a more sophisticated shape as a cookie cutter – the star shapes would still be good. Mind you most laid-back adults would be just as happy as the kids to be eating pigs and bunnies!
The Author:
Kit Heathcock – worked and traveled in Italy for many years, is passionate about food and loves being a full time mother. Co-creator of A Flower Gallery home of original flower pictures and Food and Family.
Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock