Cheddar Star Biscuits

Cheesy spicy biscuits make a tasty canapé to serve at Christmas parties or on a cheese board. Kids and adults alike will enjoy making these!

These cheesy biscuits are buttery and rich, they have a beautifully flaky texture and every bite is packed with flavour from mature Cheddar, English mustard and cayenne pepper. These biscuits have a pleasant kick of heat from cayenne pepper, if you’re not a fan of spicy food then you can leave it out. They take no time at all to make and you can cut them into any shape you like. Just watch these disappear!

Ingredients:

140g plain/all-purpose flour

60g salted or unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

110g extra mature Cheddar, finely grated

1 large free-range egg yolk

2 teaspoons English or Dijon mustard

Method:

1. Weigh the flour out into a large mixing bowl. Add the cubed butter and using your fingertips rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add the salt and cayenne and mix through. Now add the grated cheese and mix again until combined.
3. Add the egg yolk along with the mustard and gently mix until a ball of dough forms. Cover the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180ºC / 160°C Fan / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4.
4. Once the dough has chilled for half an hour, lightly dust a work surface with flour. Roll the dough out until it’s roughly 1/8 inch thick.
5. Using any shaped cutter you like cut out pieces of the dough and place on a 1-2 large non-stick baking trays. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the biscuits are golden. Once they’ve finished baking, remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for a few minutes. Carefully transport to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Biscuits will store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Recipe Notes:

• You can use a mix of different cheese in this recipe, if you want use half Cheddar and half Parmesan or similar vegetarian hard cheese alternative.
• Try your best to handle the dough as little as you can, over handling will develop the gluten in your dough and will make it tough – something you don’t want to happen as you want the biscuits to be flaky and light.
• I used this set of useful conversion tables to convert the measurements in this recipe.

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