Christmas Countdown: Cheese Stars: Edible Gifts!

This recipe is from the BBC Good Food Magazine November issue 2016. They recommend making them as party snacks, however, these would also work well as edible Christmas gifts wrapped in cellophane bundles with festive ribbon.

Ingredients:

• 320g puff pastry (you can buy ready made
  or make your own)
• 90g grated cheddar cheese (and a bit extra
  for sprinkling over the top)
• plain flour for rolling and dusting
• 2 tbsp milk
• toppings (I used sesame seeds, but you could
  also use poppy seeds or oregano)

Method:

1. Cover your rolling pin and work surface in flour
2. Roll the pastry out and sprinkle the cheese over one
   half of the pastry and then fold the other half over to seal
3. Roll the pastry out until it has doubled in size, another good
   way of judging is to look at it sideways (aim for about the
   depth of a £1 coin)
4. Heat oven to 200 degrees/180 degrees fan oven, or GM 6
5. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper
6. Use cookie cutters to cut the pastry into shapes and put
   on the baking trays
7. You can re-roll what’s left of the cheese pastry to make
   more complete shapes
8. Brush the shapes with a little milk (ideally use a pastry brush,
   but the student method is to dip the backs of your fingers in
   and spreada small amount on the shapes)
9. Sprinkle cheese, toppings and (optional) salt and pepper
   or herbs over the top.
10. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the oven until risen and golden

BBC Good Food nutritional information:
(per star, depending on size and various toppings used)
87 calories, 6g fat, 3g saturates, 6g carbohydrates, 0g sugars, 1g fibre, 2g protein and 0.2g salt

For Gifts:

I found the cellophane, Christmas ribbon and gift tags from Poundland. Simply place the cheese stars on squares of cellophane, gather up and tie with ribbon. I cut the original string off the gift tags and used the festive ribbon (fold in half to push through gift tag hole).

-Lucy Lincoln