Saturday, November 17, 2007

Nigella Lawson's Cheesy Feet

One of the first posts on Nami-nami back in July 2005 was about feet-shaped cheesy cookies, sprinkled with caraway, poppy or sesame seeds. The idea was derived from gorgeous Nigella's beautiful book Feast: Food That Celebrates Life. Back then I nicked Nigella's idea, traced down feet-shaped cookie cutters, but used one of my favourite cheese cookie recipes instead of Nigella's recipe. I thought it's time to use my feet-shaped cookie cutters again, and finally test Nigella's original cheesy feet, sorry, cheese cookie recipe.


I must admit I prefer my old and trusty cheese cookie recipe, especially the caraway-sprinkled version. But Nigella's recipe yields lovely, crumbly cheese cookies that would be a great nibble, whether feet-shaped or not.

Cheesy Feet
(Nigella Lawsoni juustuküpsised)
Yields: 20 cookies



100 g Cheddar cheese, grated
25 g soft butter (salted is fine)
50 g plain/all-purpose flour
0.25 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200C.
Place all ingredients into a food processor and blitz until comes together. (If you haven't got a food processor, then mix gtated cheese, soft butter chunks, flour and baking powder in a bowl and work between your fingers until combined). Form a flat disc, wrap in a clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Roll the rested dough on a floury surface to about 3 mm in thickness, and cut out your feet with feet-shaped cookie cutters (I used my 3 cm long cookie cutter). You can keep re-rolling this dough and cutting out feet until it is all used up.
Put them on a lined baking sheet and cook in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, until slightly golden on edges (NB! Overcooked cheese cookies taste nasty and bitter, so take them out of the oven when still light golden).
Transfer the cookies to a metal rack and allow to cool.

10 comments:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Great feet! I have a cookie cutter like this, too -- we use it for our Drop In & Decorate holiday cookies. There's always something fun about eating feet!!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

OMG I have to do these! I love the little feet. I know just when I want to do these too.

Dagmar said...

They look so cute. I still havn't made your earlier cheesy feet, but they are on my to do list!

Laurie Constantino said...

Wonderful idea Pille! The cookie cutter is amusing, and your opening photo fantastic. Thanks for giving me a laugh first thing in the morning!

Anonymous said...

http://www.coppergifts.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=3199

this is the bikini cookie cutter in case you didn't find it. It is called the torso cookie cutter

I was reading your older post and found this. Enjoy reading all your posts.
Andrea

Katie Zeller said...

Those are just too cute! I have to get a 'feet' cookie cutter...or do you get them in pairs?
The recipe sounds good, too. I love cheese biscuits!

Jeanne said...

These look like something you could use on Christmas morning to convince young members of the family that Santa Claus has indeed visited their house :) I don't have a foot-shaped cookie cutter but you have reminded me that I want to make my mom's cheese straw recipe this Christmas - thanks!

Bev and Ollie "O" said...

cheesy feet! what a fantastically funny idea! I love it! x
Good ole Nigella, always has such fab recipes!

Hedgehog said...

Your cheesy cookies made a great night-before-Thanksgiving cooking party snack! Thanks!

Pille said...

Lydia – yes, even if they’re cheesy feet :)

Tanna – I imagine these would make a great babyshower gift..

Dagmar – and I must try your Moomin cakes!

Laurie – you’re welcome :)

Andrea – thank you for the link!

Katie – they are cute, aren’t they! I got a set of three, all different sizes. I guess you flip the cookie over to bake the other side, and then you get pairs. I made only left feet this time. Ooops.

Jeanne – that’s such a neat idea! You’ve got a good and child-friendly fantasy, Jeanne!

Bev & Ollie “O” – Nigella has delicious recipes indeed. I’ve written about quite a few of recipes on the blog - Rum-soaked Banana Bread, Beetroot Salad with Dill and Mustard Seeds, Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes, Penne alla Vodka, Cranberry Upside-Down Cake, Chocolate and Orange Marmalade Cake, Upside-Down Red Onion Pie. What a great inspiration!

Hedgehog – wonderful! Thank you for letting me know!!