so you wannabee a Domestik Goddess?

My great-grandmother was not a woman to waste effort, so most of her cooking recipes (like this one for Cheese Apple Squares) called for no more than 6 or 7 ingredients, and were quick and easy to make.

Quite often, as I recall, her recipes used ingredients in a way we might consider to be slightly unusual — cheddar cheese in a sweet dessert square, for example. But if you think about it, cheese is often served with apple pie!

Cheese Apple Squares are among the best-loved treats of my childhood. For me, the flavour is bound up with fond memories of following Nana out to pick apples or tiny sour crab-apples from the old home-yard trees, then helping her to bottle a winter’s supply of homemade preserves…

I’ve never gotten into jam- or jelly-making, myself — too lazy! — but I still bake these sweet-and-savoury squares for an occasional treat:

Cheese Apple Squares

• ½ cup butter, softened
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 ½ cups sifted white flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 cup crab-apple (or apple) jelly

Cream the butter and cheese. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and sugar. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, combining well. Press half of the dough into the bottom of an 8″x8″ pan. Spread with jelly. Put the remaining dough on top. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Cut into squares when cool.

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