Parmesan biscuits

After the sweet cookies I shared with you this past week, I think it is time to change things up for the last post of cookie week.

I’m more of a savory kind of person than sweet, so making these parmesan biscuits and most importantly eating them, was extremely enjoyable.

I’m a huge cheese fiend and Parmesan is one of my favorite cheeses. Its mature, intense, peppery flavor is incomparable and adding it to anything from tart bases, custards to soufflés, guarantees success and a scrumptious result.

There’s nothing better than a small savory and buttery biscuit filled with the umami flavor of parmesan, crispy and flaky, paired with a glass of champagne when you arrive at someone’s home for a festive dinner.

Served with a small dollop of cranberry chutney or raspberry and onion chutney, anything having a sweet and sour taste really, it’s a perfectly balanced little hors-d’oevre, a great alternative to the same old crackers or toasted bread with cheese, and much more elegant.


Happy baking and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

Parmesan Biscuits

You can also serve these biscuits with fig jam or quince jelly, and a chilled dry white wine.

Yield: about 40 biscuits

Ingredients
180 g all-purpose flour
115 g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
125 g parmesan, finely grated
1 large egg
¼ tsp sea salt
Pinch of cayenne
Freshly ground black pepper, 3-4 grinds of the pepper mill

Special equipment: rasp grater, large food processor, plastic wrap, rolling pin, baking paper, 1-2 baking sheets, round cookie cutter (5 cm diameter)


Preparation
In a food processor, add the flour and the butter and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the parmesan, egg, salt, cayenne and black pepper and process until the mixture becomes a very rough and crumbly dough. It will not come together into a ball, but the mixture will firm up.
Empty it onto a clean work surface and bring it together with your hands, kneading for a few seconds until you have a smooth and firm dough that is a bit crackly.

Shape it into a flattened disk and wrap it with plastic wrap.
Place it in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and place it between two sheets of baking paper. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 0.7-0.8 cm-thickness.

Line your baking sheet(s) with baking paper.

In a small bowl, add some flour and use it to dip in your cookie cutter. In this way, the cookie cutter won't stick to the dough.
Remove the top baking paper from your rolled-out dough and using your cookie cutter, cut out rounds of dough and place them on your prepared baking sheet.

Place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to firm up and preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 350 Fahrenheit.

Note: Gather scraps of dough, roll out again, place in the fridge to firm up and then cut out cookies. Repeat until all the dough is used up.

Take baking sheet out of the refrigerator and place on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake biscuits for 15-17 minutes, until they take on a golden color.
Keep an eye on them so they don't catch because they will have a bitter taste.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the second one in.

Transfer biscuits to a rack to cool.

They are best eaten the first and second day when they’ll be most crispy, but you can keep them up to 4 days in a biscuit tin.