A Savoury Nibble

I often have a bit of a savoury tooth when it comes to snacking. I do love cake, my sweet sweet downfall, but when it comes to chocolate or biscuits and that sort of thing, I’d usually pass them up in a heartbeat for something saltier; a packet of crisps say, or some pitta chips with a tasty dip and a side of crunchy vegetables.

Lately I’ve spent a lot of my free time having a good drool over the food in the Honey & Co. cookbook. It all looks so delicious it’s hard to know where to start, but I noticed a recipe for Bouikos which they describe as little cheese buns native to the Balkans. To me, they taste like a really flaky savoury scone turned amuse bouche. On biting into one of these tantalising wee triangles my ‘bouche’ was certainly amused. Tender cheesy goodness, they really hit the spot!

Bouikos

Bouikos

100g plain flour

50g cold butter

40g mature cheddar cheese

40g feta

a pinch of salt

50ml sour cream

1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds

2 spring onions, sliced

milk, to glaze

Method

Cut the butter into small cubes, grate the cheddar cheese and crumble the feta, then combine all the ingredients together. Work the mixture together with your hands until it just combines. Lumps of butter and cheese are exactly what you want in this dough, because when you bake it they will melt and be so tasty!

Put the dough on a lightly floured work surface and pat it into a rough rectangle roughly 2-3cm thick. Flour the blade of your knife, cut the dough in half lengthways, slice across three times to divide it into six squares, then cut each of these corner to corner to make twelve small triangles. You could shape these into any shape you like though, however it might mean re-rolling the offcuts which has the potential of making them ever so slightly tougher.

Preheat your oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas mark 7.

Brush the tops with a little milk for a glossy finish. Bake on a lined baking tray on the upper-middle shelf of the oven for 10 minutes. Open the oven and carefully turn the tray around, then reduce the temperature to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6 and bake for a further 6-8 minutes until they are golden.

These can be eaten straight away or cooled on a tray until ready to be served. They do taste best though when eaten on the same day.

• What’s especially nice about this recipe is that it takes hardly any time to whip up, but they also freeze really well raw. Freeze the triangles on a flat tray with a bit of space in between each of them, then once they’re fully frozen pack them into a container or freezer bag. You could easily keep a ziplock bag of these in the freezer so they’re ready to just pop in the oven when snacks are called for, just make sure you let them thaw for a short while at room temperature before baking, between 30 minutes to an hour if possible. Now you have a nice nibble on backup for a rainy day! BOOM.