Sadly the baked goods which I took for granted in Pune and then in UK as well are not easily available here (in Gurgaon) unless you go to a gourmet bakery. I have been missing the baked goods since we moved here. Both me and my other half have a sweet tooth but lately he has been going off sweets and showing inclination towards healthy eating which is good but also means that I cannot bake without feeling guilty. As I also want to keep my baking interest alive, I started looking out for savoury recipes. While browsing my convection microwave oven manual I came across this recipe for Cheese Straw that looked so simple that I wanted to try it straightaway. Being a busy mom, there are a couple of things I look for in a recipe : is it simple and can it prepared in a matter of minutes? This recipe called for very few ingredients which are available at home so I had no hesitation in trying out the recipe.
And the results spoke for themselves! So much so that I made another batch the next day - however as always I twisted the original recipe and gave the cheese straws a new look - I made cheese biscuits instead and also added rolled oats.
Without further ado, here is the recipe:
Cheese Straws
Ingredients
100 gms Plain Flour (1 cup)
50 gms unsalted butter
25 gms grated cheese
1/4 tsp Salt (use a little more if using unsalted butter)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder
Ice cold water for kneading the dough
Procedure
- Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and spices and sift it into a mixing bowl.
- Break the butter into small bits and add it to flour. Also add the cheese.Now rub the butter into the flour using your finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
- Add cold water - little at a time and knead the dough.
- Chill the dough for atleast 30 minutes.
- Divide the dough into two portions. Roll each portion into a big circle until it is about 1/2 cms thick and cut each circle into small strips about 1/2 cms wide.
- Twist each strip until it resembles cheese straw and place it on a baking tray.
- Bake at 210 C for 13-15 minutes until it is golden and crispy.
Oaty Cheese Biscuits
I loved the taste so much that I baked another batch today. I twisted the cheese straw recipe by adding couple of tablespoons of rolled oats into the crumbly mixture before adding water. I also shaped the dough into biscuits instead of straws and topped each biscuits with sesame and nigella (kalonji) seeds. The result is Oaty Cheese Biscuits.
I am sure you would like to try out this recipe.
