Not Cheesecake but “cheese cakes” which, according to my reading of the original recipe in Cooking with Love and Paprika, are small savory biscuit sized cakes made with cheese. The ingredient list doesn’t contain any chemical leaveners. Whatever rising occurs will be based off of cheese, flour, butter and steam.
I plan on keeping things as cold as possible and avoid handling things with my hands. Keeping the work implements cold will allow the butter, cheese and final dough to develop steam in the baking process and rise. I can’t imagine they will rise much. Having never seen a picture of these cheesy buscuits I’ll have no idea if I’m doing this right or wrong.
Cheese Cakes, makes about 12
Hardware
- Chilled rolling pin
- Chilled medium bowl
- Biscuit cutter
- Baking sheet lined with parchment paper
Software
- 1 stick butter
- 1/2 cup sifted flour
- 3 oz grated Cheddar cheese
- dash of salt and cayenne pepper
- beaten egg
- paprika
Preparation
Whisk together cheese, flour, salt and pepper. Cut butter into tablespoon sized chunks and work into flour mixture with fingers or dough cutter. Put dough into bowl and chill well. Roll dough very thin on a cool surface with a chilled rolling pin and cut with biscuit cutter. Place cut biscuits on prepared baking sheet and brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with paprika. Chill again for 15-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake for 5 minutes. Then drop the temperature to 375 and bake 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve warm or cold. Be careful not to overcook the biscuits or they will become dry.
