Cheese Stars

Total Time: 25 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 150 g plain flour
• 50 g cold butter, cubed
• 85 g cheddar cheese, finely grated (or a mixture of several cheeses, parmesan is a good addition)
• 1 beef stock cube, crumbled
• 1 egg, seperated
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried herbs (rosemary or oregano are good, in my experience)
• 1 pinch salt
• and a pinch of any other spices or herbs, you want to add

Recipe

• 1 1. preheat the oven to 200c, or 180c fan assisted. grease and flour two large baking trays.
• 2 2. in a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, herbs and spices. crumble in the stock cube and stir well until evenly distributed.
• 3 3. rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• 4 4. stir in the cheese until well distributed (i find using two forks to pull apart the clumps of grated cheese is a good method).
• 5 5. mix in the egg yolk with your fingers, working the mixture to a dense dough. you may need to add a splash or two of water to achieve the correct consistency - the mixture should not be sticky, but should not leave crumbs in the bowl.
• 6 6. roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of around 5mm - this isn't too vital, but will affect cooking times.
• 7 7. with a star-shaped cutter, stamp out as many shapes as you can from the dough and place, slightly spaced, on the baking sheets. re-roll the dough and repeat until you have too little left to work with.
• 8 8. brush each star with a little egg and bake in the preheated oven for around ten minutes until golden.
• 9 9. remove and cool on wire trays.