Cheese Cows

Now I am in no way an animal fascist. You can make these in any animal shape you want or indeed any shape you like. This is not really a 'traditional' cheese straw recipe - which I do in either straw or star shape. For this recipe I like animals though - I have pig, cow and elephant... I want more. I want a whole zoo. Anyway, that's not the point. This is a really easy recipe that's yummy and rather addictively tasty.

UPDATE 2017: these are my most requested treat. For every kids party, christmas party, in face any event I get asked to make these.

CHEESE COWS
Makes approx 25 cows

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/355F/Gas Mark 4.

170g (60z) mature cheddar, coarsely grated
60g butter
95g plain flour
1/8 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp table salt

Pre-heat the oven to 170C/350F/Gas Mark 4. You'll need a food processor (unless you want sore arms), a large baking sheet (or a couple of small ones if you are like me and can never find a suitable big one), and a cooling rack. I only mention it because I only remember I need one when I'm holding the hot baking tray in my hands. You can add more or less of the onion powder as you wish but increase/decrease the salt accordingly as the onion powder is salty itself.

1. Put all the ingredients together in the mixer and blend until it forms a dough. About two minutes.

2. Wrap the dough ball in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour. This makes it much more manageable when you are rolling it and cutting out your shapes later.

Dough ready to be rolled

3. Lightly flour a surface or board and your rolling pin and roll the dough out until it's reasonably thin (about 3mm). Cut your shapes out with the cutter of choice. It's easiest if you flour the cutter in-between using a small plate of flour but I am usually too lazy to do this.

4. Put the shapes onto a lined baking tray. These go up rather than out so they can be quite close together. I got a bit carried away and used a skewer to make eyes but you really don't have to do that.

Cows ready for the oven

5. Bake in the oven for 12-15 mins. Check after 10 though - my oven is quite hot. They need to be browned at the edges although of course it is up to you how cooked they are.

Cooling Cows

6. Put on a rack to cool. And then into a tin to keep them fresh.

7.Try not to eat them all yourself. Although obviously you can if you want.