Cheesy biscuits

I hope you all had a lovely and stress free Christmas day! I'm not going to post photos of my loot, that's vulgar (I'm too lazy to take photos). Instead, I'm going to show you how to make a cholesterol filled snack to poison house guests with. They are extremely moreish and can be tweaked in so many ways, plus they are an excellent way to use up cheese that needs eating. Serve them alone, with spreads and dips, or as croutons in a salad. 

Here's the base recipe:

• 200g self raising flour
• 100g butter
• 100g cheese 
• flavourings/seasoning 
• 1 egg

-Preheat your oven to 180°c
-Put your flour in a large bowl, and add the butter. If the butter is very hard, it's best to melt it in the microwave (20 secs should do it). Rub the flour and butter together with your hands until it reaches a consistent crumb texture.

-Grate your cheese and mix it in. Add your flavourings. I chose a teaspoon of oregano and a teaspoon of mustard powder.

-Crack your egg into the bowl and beat it with your hands to break up the yolk. Begin to drag in the flour mixture and work until it forms a dough.

-Roll out your dough onto a floured work-surface or piece of baking parchment using a floured rolling pin. You're aiming for a thickness of about 4mm. Cut out your shapes...

-... place them on a baking tray and bake them for 15 minutes.

-When they're done, put them on a baking rack to cool (mind your fingers!).

Variations:

• The easier change you can make is swapping out the cutter or discarding it entirely. Choose a cutter to match the theme of your party- bats for Halloween, palm trees for a luau etc. If you want to make small bite sized pieces, cut diamonds but cutting the dough into strips and slashing it into diamonds. You can also take strips and twist them to make baked cheese twists.
• Flavours! There are so many options here. Add your favourite herb, fresh or dried. Add tomato or garlic purée for a richer flavour. Change the cheese- I used cheddar and some parmesan (the powdered stuff is awful, but good in this recipe!), but try any cheese you've got.
• Change the self raising flour for plain and you'll make a denser biscuit.
• Make a healthier biscuit by leaving out any salt, swapping for a low fat cheese and using wholemeal flour and a teaspoon of baking powder instead of refined flour. In theory you could substitute the butter for something healthier, but you'd be an utter killjoy.

And lastly, if you have a lot of spare time or some brain problems, I guess you can decorate them.