Cheese squares
Cheese. Cheese elevated by a few eggs. See the pockets in the photo? Expanding cheese. Crispy bits on the pieces by the edge of the pan? Oh, dear. Those are the best.
During the summer at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church there is no Sunday School. So after the 8:45 a.m. service, we have coffee hour. Different people do it on different weeks. Last week was my turn. I made the infamous peanut butter, dark chocolate chip and bacon cookies. And the cheese squares. Oh, and I had a bowl of fruit, but nobody ate it. I don’t know why I always think I’ll look like a dietary horror story if I don’t serve fruit. I have done coffee hour in the summer for almost 20 years and nobody ever eats the fruit.
One of our priests is a vegetarian. We have a hard time processing that type of information at a church where the main fundraiser is a summer BBQ featuring 8,324 pounds of pulled pork. But to each his own. Or her own. “Tracy, if you come to coffee hour don’t eat the cookies,” I warned her. “They have bacon in them.”
Tracy weighs approximately 57 pounds, a testament to vegetarianism. So it was with great delight that I observed her trying a cheese square. And then another. And then one more. And so on and so forth. And as I was leaving, she asked what was in the cheese squares.
Cheese. Pretty much just cheese. This recipe originally came to me from my friend, Kim Council. But I’ve modified it to add Sriracha. Everything’s better with Sriracha.
- 4 eggs
- 16 ounces grated Cheddar cheese
- ½ cup dried smoked tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Blend eggs in a a blender or food processor until frothy (you will see bubbles form). Transfer to a bowl and add the cheese, tomatoes, onion and Sriracha. The mixture will be very dense and you will wonder why this is ever going to work.
- Pour into a 9-by-9 inch pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is beginning to turn golden brown. Cool and cut into 1-inch squares.
These looks fantastic. Add a big salad and you’d have a meal.
You are exactly right! Good to hear from you. Send me one of your favorite recipes and I’ll blog about it!
Wonder if you made these in a cast iron cornbread “stick” pan, if that would work? If so, there would be LOTS of crispy edges! I can’t wait to blow my diet and make these. 🙂
You could try it in a cast iron stick pan. If it works, it would be fantastic! Let me know.
where do you find dried smoked tomatoes? is this the same as sun dried tomatoes?
I get them at my beloved Publix. They’re in the produce department, usually on an end cap. It’s not the same thing as sun-dried tomatoes. They’re actually smoked and sun-dried. Yummy!