Every now and then you want a really nice crunchy savory cheese biscuit to go with… something. It doesn’t matter what. Here is one you should look at.
Full disclosure here: I’m really lactose-intolerant these days. And because Parmesan is one of the cheeses in which a lactose-intolerant person can carefully indulge—its long aging meaning that the cheese’s native bacteria have kindly eaten almost all the lactose in it—I find that it’s a cheese to which I’m now a lot more alert than I used to be.
As a result, in recent years there’s been a lot of experimentation around here surrounding Parmesan. And when this recipe came in a couple of years back along with a recent order of goodies from BienManger.com—that superb European aggregator of small French artisanal food producers—we decided to try it as quickly as we could. An online shopping session at Sheridans Cheesemongers in Dublin shortly made that possible.
So check these out. They’re really worthwhile.
(More disclosure, in case you’re wondering: We don’t accept promotional fees or kickbacks-in-kind from anybody. But we do shop with these folks a lot, and we absolutely recommend them.)
This recipe is simple to make, and relatively quick. A couple of caveats before you start:
- A good shortbread is pretty much (chemically speaking) a suspension of solid or semi-solid fats in flour. Add the cheese and a couple of egg yolks to this basic setup, and depending on the way your local flour absorbs moisture, you’re likely enough to wind up with a very crumbly dough that seems intent on giving you grief about coming together. Take your time with this, and resist the urge to add “just a little water” to it to make it more cooperative. If you do you’re likely to wind up with a final product that is chewy and not-crisp and makes you wonder why you ever bothered.
- And about the Parmesan: For this recipe you need to get fresh- (or nearly-fresh-)grated Parmesan: or else, much better, buy it in the block and grate it yourself. Do not use the stuff that comes in it’ll-last-forever drums at the supermarket. Those routinely contain anti-caking compounds that will interfere with the results of this recipe.
Ingredients:
- 180 grams (1.5 US cups) of all-purpose flour
- 120 grams (0.5 US cup) butter, at room temperature
- 100 grams (2.5 US cups) Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
- 1 or 2 egg yolks (and you might need 3, so be prepared to add a third)
- 1 gram (1/4 teaspoon) salt
Directions:
Weigh and grate the Parmesan (or measure out the appropriate amount) and set it aside.
While the butter is still cool, cut it into cubes about the size of dice.
Measure your flour into a bowl with ample working space. Stir in the salt.
When the butter is more or less at room temperature, add it to the flour, toss it around a bit with a fork, and then cut it in, using a couple of knives or a pastry blender, until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.
Stir the grated Parmesan into the mixture until well incorporated.
Add the first egg yolk and mix well: then the second. Ideally you should avoid working the dough more than necessary, but when you’re getting it to come together, you may have little choice. If you’re pressing the dough together firmly and it’s still refusing to cohere, add a third egg yolk, mix well, and try again. The dough needs (the original recipe says) to be “homogeneous and compact.” You may not be able to get it to do this in the bowl. If this is the case, dump it out on your work surface and just knead it until it comes together.
When it’s finally done so, carefully roll the dough into a couple of long “sausages” about an inch across. Wrap them in plastic wrap/clingfilm (or if you prefer, in baking parchment) and put them in the refrigerator for one hour, or the freezer for 15 minutes.
About fifteen minutes before the rolls of dough are ready to come out of the fridge, preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. (180C may be better if you’re using a fan oven / convection oven: do a test run with a few of the biscuits on a single baking sheet to check your temperature. Don’t forget as you bake that your oven’s interior temperature will become progressively hotter as you work, so you may need to lower your baking temperature slightly as the baking proceeds.)
Meanwhile prepare a couple of baking sheets by covering them with baking parchment / greaseproof paper, or with silicone baking mats if you have them.
Take the dough rolls from the fridge and use the sharpest knife you have to cut them into slices about 8mm / 1/3 inch thick. If slices crack when you cut them, squeeze them together a little as you place them on the baking sheets. They will spread a little bit when baking, so space them a couple of inches apart.
Bake the biscuits for about 15 minutes, or until they’re golden and have gone a little bit brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven and cool on a wire rack. When they’re completely cool, store them in an airtight tin until you’re ready to serve them.
These are terrific by themselves, though the original recipe suggests serving them as hors d’oeuvres, or as a light starter with a salad on the side.
The original recipe also suggests that you might like to enhance the basic dough with spices (we’ve already tried adding cayenne to these, which works very well), aromatic herbs, or even very-finely chopped meats such as bacon or chorizo.
Bon appetit!
