In the foregoing pages a large number of recipes have been included in which cheese is combined with materials without cooking, as in salads, or used in cooked dishes of creamy or custard-like consistency, as in soufflés and Welsh rabbit or in combination with vegetables or cereals, such as rice.
There are a number of cheese dishes of quite different character in which the cheese is combined with dough, batter, or pastry in various ways, and a number of dishes in which cheese or cheese curd is used in combinations suitable for dessert. Such sweet dishes were once much more common than they are to-day, as reference to old cookery books will show, but some of them are well worth retaining.
In cheese sweets, flavor and richness are both contributed by the cheese.
When cheese is used in pastry or dough it may serve simply as a flavor, as in cheese sticks or cheese straws, or it may wholly or in part replace with its fat the usual shortening, as butter or other fat, and with its protein (casein) the protein (albumin) of eggs. As an illustration of such a use of cheese, cheese gingerbread may be cited.
Using cheese in this way is often an economy when eggs are scarce. Better results will be obtained if soft cheese is used which can be worked into the dough in much the same way as butter or other shortening. To those who like cheese the flavor which it imparts would be an advantage. However, if a very mild cheese is used in combination with molasses or spice the dish differs a little in flavor from one prepared in the usual way.
CHEESE PASTRIES AND SIMILAR DISHES.
Cheese Biscuit No. 1.
| 2 cupfuls of flour. | ¼ teaspoonful of salt. |
| 4 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. | Grated cheese sufficient to give desired flavor. |
| 2 tablespoonfuls of lard or butter. | |
| ⅞ of a cup of milk. |
Mix all the ingredients excepting the cheese as for baking powder biscuits. Roll thin, divide into two parts, sprinkle one half with grated cheese, lay the other half of the dough over the cheese, cut out with a small cutter, and bake.