Manchego cheese is from the Spanish region of La Mancha, where Don Quijote dueled with windmills.  It is a sheep’s milk cheese which can be substituted by an Italian Pecorino cheese, also a sheep’s cheese.  The older these cheeses are the harder they become.  This recipe was made with 6 month old cheese.

Ingredients:

1.  4 ounces Manchego cheese
2. 1 cup all-purpose flour
3. ½ teaspoons salt
4. 1/8 teaspoons cayenne pepper
5. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
6. 3 tablespoons ice cold water

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

1. Grate the cheese in a food processor. Measure it.  You should have 1 cup.
2. Place flour, salt, & cayenne pepper in food processor along with the butter cut into several slices.  Add the cheese.
3. Process the mixture until it resembles corn meal.
4. Add the water and process until a ball forms.  If a ball does not form, don’t over process.  Simply gather all the dough and knead a few times.
5. Roll the ball out on a well floured surface to 1/8”thickness.  Cut with a 2”or 1 ½” round cookie cutter, depending on the size of cookie you want.
6. Place on un-greased cookie sheet.  You can put the biscuits close together as they will not get bigger.  In fact, they will shrink a little!
7. Prick the tops with a fork all the way through, otherwise the biscuits will puff.  If you would rather have puffy biscuits, don’t prink with fork.  That is up to you.
8. Place the cookie sheet in the middle of the oven and cook for about 10-12 minutes depending on the size of the cookie cutter chosen.
9. Transfer biscuits to cooling rack and when cooled store up to a week in a tin can.