Easy Peasy Cheesy Cookies

Add herbs, a hint of cayenne or sesame seeds to this recipe, it’s all good!

The wonder of this simple dough is that it turns into a light and crispy consistency, resembling puff pastry, without the hard work. You can add herbs or spices like cayenne pepper to the dough or some sesame seeds to the cookies before they go into the oven. I like them best plain I think. You can also add a hint of salt if your cheddar is mild.

Making the Cheese Cookies
This recipe is too easy! But the result is fabulously ‘cheesy’. Just take equal parts of flour, butter (in little cubes) and good quality cheddar cheese. With 100 grams of each you will get about 40 little cookies. Rub the butter with the flour, add the cheese and stir. Add one egg yolk and quickly form a dough. If it feels too sticky just add a little extra flour. . Rap in cling film, shape into a flat disc for easy rolling later on and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven at 200ºC / 390ºF.

Roll out to about 3 mm / 1.2 inch thick between two sheets of cling film and make nice shapes with a cookie cutter. (little fish with your fish soup, stars for Christmas, little animals for the children, leafs for fall etc..).

Arrange the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. When they look golden brown and crisp, take them out and leave to cool on a rack.

The wonder of this simple dough is that it turns into a light and crispy consistency, resembling puff pastry, without the hard work. You can add herbs or spices like cayenne pepper to the dough or some sesame seeds to the cookies before they go into the oven. I like them best plain I think. You can also add a hint of salt if your cheddar is mild.

PS: Did you know that “Early English and Dutch immigrants first introduced the cookie to America in the 1600s. While the English primarily referred to cookies as small cakes, seed biscuits, or tea cakes, or by specific names, such as jumbal or macaroon, the Dutch called them ‘koekjes’, a diminutive of koek (cake)…Etymologists note that by the early 1700s, koekje had been Anglicized into “cookie” or “cookey,” and the word clearly had become part of the American vernacular. Following the American Revolution, people from other parts of the country became familiar with the cookie when visiting New York City, the nation’s first capitol, a factor that resulted in widespread use of the term…During the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries most cookies were made in home kitchens. They were baked as special treats because the cost of sweeteners and the amount of time and labor required for preparation. The most popular of these early cookies still retain their prize status. Recipes for jumbles, a spiced butter cookie, and for macaroons, based on beaten egg whites and almonds, were common in the earliest American cookbooks…Because it was relatively inexpensive and easy to make, gingerbread was one of the most popular early cookies…As kitchen technology improved in the early 1900s, most notably in the ability to regulate oven temperature, America’s repertoire of cookie recipes grew.”
—Oxford Encyclopaedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press: New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 317-8)