Cheese and chilli biscuits

These aren’t like typical oatcakes, they’re more like lovely, crumbly, savoury, cheesy biscuits. We just ate these ones on their own as pre-dinner snacks with drinks, but they would also be great with cheese – maybe even a strong one as the cheese flavour of the biscuits is quite mild – or just a bit of chutney on the top.

Adapted from Nathan Outlaw’s recipe on Great British Chefs – see http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/cheese-oatcakes-recipe

Ingredients

300g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
330g plain flour
60g oats, toasted in a dry pan until golden-brown
1 tsp chilli flakes (or more!)
60g cheddar, grated (we used Snowdonia Cheese Company’s Little Black Bomber Extra Mature Cheddar)
Pinch of salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Add all the ingredients to a large bowl or food processor and process until the mixture starts to come together as a sticky ball of dough.
Scrape the dough out into the middle of a large piece of clingfilm and roll into a sausage shape using the clingfilm.
Seal tightly by twisting the ends of the clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to rest and firm up.
Grease a large baking tray.
Remove your dough from the fridge, unwrap it from the clingfilm and sit it on a board.
Use a sharp knife to slice into rounds about 1cm thick.
Place on the greased tray, spaced slightly apart so that they can spread when cooking.
Bake in the preheated oven for around 15 minutes – but keep an eye on them starting to turn golden-brown earlier as precise timing will depend on your oven (they may also need a bit longer!).
Allow to cool slightly on the tray as they will be fragile when hot, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.