Should I Add More Baking Powder In Cheese Stars?

Our answer

Nigella has a couple of cheese biscuit recipes, including Cheese Stars and Cheesy Feet (from FEAST), but they are all based on a short, sable-type dough that is easy to mix. The dough includes some baking powder so that the little biscuits puff up slightly and adding a little more will give a more spongy texture but could also mean that the biscuits will become mis-shapen as they bake. Adding egg will not affect how much the biscuits puff up.

The sable style of dough will never give puffy layers as it is not a laminated puff pastry dough. But they are very much easier to make than a puff pastry version, the flavour of the Cheese Stars is very good and they have a melt-in-the-mouth quality. You may also like to try Nigella's Parmesan Shortbreads, which are particularly melting and savoury biscuits and perfect with pre-dinner drinks.