Cheese fennel chilli biscuits

Cheese, fennel and chilli always go well together so these cheese fennel chilli biscuits make a great canape at you next soiree. This recipe is really a cheese shortbread with extra spices, you can play around with the flavours you prefer. Leave out chilli and add dried herbs or even top each biscuit with an olive, or section of a sundried tomato. Either way they are perfect with a chilled glass of chardonnay.

  • Prep Time

    20 Minutes
  • Cook Time

    30 Minutes
  • Makes

    50 Biscuits

Ingredients

  • 225g plain flour, sifted
  • 115g rice flour, sifted
  • 225g butter, softened
  • 75g finely grated Parmesan or other strong flavoured hard cheese
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 3 teaspoons chilli flakes
  • 3 teaspoons fennel seed
  • 1 teaspoon seasalt crystals

You'll Need

  • Multix Bake
  • Multix Cling

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Line 2 oven trays with Multix Bake.
  2. Mix together the chilli flakes and fennel seeds and crush roughly in a pestle and morter.
  3. Place both flours, butter, grated parmesan and half the crushed spices into a food processor and blitz till you have a soft crumb texture. If you don’t have a food processor just rub the butter in with you fingers until it makes a crumb texture. Add the water (you may need a little more or less) until the dough starts to clump. Transfer the dough to a large bowl and with clean hands squeeze and knead the mixture together until you have a smooth dough. Form into a ball and if you have time, wrap the dough in Multix cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This makes the dough easier to handle when you roll it out. If time is not your friend, go straight to the next step.
  4. Place the dough ball on a large sheet of Multix Bake to prevent it sticking to your work top with out using additional flour. Scatter the top very lightly with plain flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a large rectangle about half a centimeter thick. With a very sharp knife, cut the dough into long ribbons about 2.5cm wide. Leave them all in place on the sheet of bake. Cut the dough again on the diagonal again in 2.5cm wide strips to make diamond shapes.
  5. Remove any edge pieces that are not full diamond shapes. (Reserve them to roll out later) Brush the entire surface of the pastry lightly with beaten egg. Scatter lightly with some of the remaining crushed spices and a few salt crystals. Using a fine spatula or knife, lift each diamond of spicy cheese pastry and transfer to the baking trays allowing a small gap between each one to give room for expansion. Reroll the dough off cuts and repeat until all the dough has been used. Cover with a second sheet of baking paper to stop them cooking too fast, and place in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow them to cool slightly on the trays and serve with drinks or dips.