Charmaine's Famous Cheese Daisies

This is the recipe that kicked off the cooking career of Mrs Reuben Solomon in 1964. Far from being her first entry in a cooking competition but definitely her most successful, the cheese biscuits are a family favourite and make great edible gifts too.

We press them out in a flower shape with a cookie press, but rolling the mixture into two logs, about 4cm in diameter, chilling for a couple of hours then slicing 5 mm thick is also an excellent way of obtaining round biscuits. If you love poppy seeds, you can roll one of the logs in them, or a mix of seeds if you enjoy ‘everything’ bagels.

225g (11/2 cups) plain flour

2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, lightly toasted

185g salted butter

150g (11/2 cups) vintage or sharp cheddar finely grated

30g (1/3 cup) freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground chilli, if you like

1. Traditional method: Cream the softened butter and grated cheeses together then add the toasted sesame seeds; and flour, salt and spices sifted together.

2. Use a biscuit press to form daisy biscuits, pressing directly onto the baking tray. Bake at 170C for 12 minutes before cooling on a rack. Makes about 40

Easy method for those with a food processor: you don’t need to grate the cheese. Just pulse all the dry ingredients together until well combined then add the cubed, cold butter and cheese. Pulse until the mixture comes together then continue processing to cream the mixture.

Divide mixture in two, form into logs about 3.5cm in diameter. Roll one of them in poppy seeds or ‘bagel everything seeds’ if desired, wrap in plastic film or waxed paper. Chill until firm. Slice into discs 5mm thick and bake in preheated 170C oven for 12 minutes or until gold in colour. This method gives you about 60 thinner biscuits.