Grandma's Recipes Part 1

Over Thanksgiving break, I was able to spend some sweet time chattin it up with my gram! She turned 91 this year, so I've been learning to treasure every moment. She would tell me stories of baking/cooking when they lived in Peru. She couldn't always get the ingredients in a recipe, so she had to improvise. A different time, and I love hearing her talk about it.

While we were talking, I asked for some of her recipes, and she got her box out to let me look through them. Here is one of the recipes I tried for Christmas presents this year. The other recipe is for No Roll Sugar Cookies. Enjoy!


Cheddar Dollars

8 oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 stick of unsalted butter (room temp)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix the cheese, butter, and flour very thoroughly. It should stick together like dough. Season the dough with the salt and cayenne pepper. Roll the dough into a long sausage shape about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap the roll in aluminum foil and chill for at least 2 hours.

To bake the dollars, cut the roll into slices 1/8 of an inch thick, spread them onto a cookie sheet and put them into a 350 degree oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they turn pale gold. Never let them brown.

You can bake the whole batch and store the dollars in a tight container, or you can keep the uncooked roll in the refrigerator, slice it off as you need it and serve the dollars hot.



Making the dough

I had so many issues with this...doing the wrong thing, forgetting ingredients, etc, but by the third attempt I had it figured out. Hopefully this will help you!

As you're mixing the dough start at a slow speed to blend it together and increase the speed on your mixer to get it to a doughy substance. You don't want it crumbly. Batch 2 was crumbly and definitely still tasted a little floury.

Once you have the dough well mixed, add the salt and cayenne pepper. The cayenne can really be however much you want to make it spicy. I kept adding until I was satisfied, but my 1/4 tsp. is a good estimate.



Rolling and Baking

Roll the dough into a sausage shape 1 inch in diameter.

Wrap it in aluminum foil and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Cut it into 1/8 inch slices (or as thin as you can cut them). The thinner you cut them, the more you make.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. (The one at the bottom got a little too thin...it happens)

THEN EAT UP!! I definitely ate most of the second batch on my own faster than I would like to admit. They are delicious especially if you like cheese-its!

Here's the original that I had to go off of. LOVE old books!

This recipe caused all sorts of grief because I didn't have a lot to go off of based on the recipe my grandma gave me. I need explicit instructions when I am trying new recipes. Hopefully my better directions helped you out. Either way the recipe book was cool! Enjoy!!