I have found in the cocktail parties people craving for appetizers with their drinks if they find them even a bit out of the usual. Sadly in most of the in-house parties, the snacks are the same age old ones, bought from the shops and heaped on the plate. It must have been very interesting if the appetizers are also home made like the food following, just out of the oven, light, less oily and devoid of any artificial flavour. Well well, the present recipe satisfies all of them and comes up with a mind blowing snack which fits in apt for the cocktail parties. If you are ready to put in the extra effort, having the extra amount of Cheddar cheese in your kitchen, no body cant stop you making your guests ga ga over these delicious bites.

Ingredients for 30-35 pieces :

1. Unsalted butter – 115 gm. + extra for greasing
2. Plain flour – 140 gm. + extra for dusting
3. Curry powder – 2 teaspoon
4. Grated Cheddar cheese – 85 gm.
5. Poppy seed – 2 teaspoon
6. Nigella seed – 1 teaspoon
7. Egg yolk – 1
8. Cumin seeds for sprinkling

Procedure :

Grease one or two baking sheets with a little butter. Sift the flour and curry powder into a bowl. Cut the butter into pieces and add to the flour. Rub in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the cheese, poppy seeds and black onion seeds. Stir in the egg yolk and mix to a firm dough.

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to 3 mm./1/8 inch thick. Stamp out shapes with a cutter. Re-roll the trimmings and stamp out more shapes until the dough is used up.

Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheets and sprinkle with the cumin seeds. Chill for a further 15 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven, 190ºC/375ºF, for 20 minutes, or until crisp and golden.

Serve warm or transfer to wire rack to cool.