Hollywood Cooking: Vincent Price Cheese Delights Biscuits

Vincent Price in the Kitchen

In addition to acting and art collecting, Vincent Price was also known for his culinary expertise. He was the author of several cookbooks and even appeared on television frequently to discuss and/or prepare food. My wife and I own one of Price's cookbooks, "A Treasury of Great Recipes," which is a collection of recipes Price and his wife Mary had collected from their world travels. The book is filled with many delicious recipes and is beautifully illustrated. If you find a copy it is worth the purchase.

I recently found online over at Food.com a recipe for "Vincent Price Cheese Delights" which is a recipe from another Price cookbook that I don't own. This past weekend I figured I would give this cheesy biscuit recipe a try. Unfortunately, this recent experiment in cooking didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped. I don't think the recipe that was posted online was complete - something was surely missing, but here is the recipe as I found it and how my cooking venture went.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chilled butter
• 1/2 lb grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• split blanched almond, for garnish
• salt, to taste

Directions:

1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and cheddar cheese.
2. Mix in the flour, salt, and cayenne pepper.
3. Gather dough into a ball, cover with plastic, and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour. (I needed to add a little milk to make the flour mix with the butter and cheese.)
4. Remove from refrigerator and turn out the dough onto a lightly-floured board.
5. Roll dough to a 1/4-inch thickness and cut with a small round biscuit cutter.
6. Place biscuits on a non-stick baking sheet, press a half of a blanched almond in the center of each biscuit, and lightly sprinkle the biscuits to taste with salt.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 7 to 8 minutes or until golden. (I needed to cook closer 20 minutes in my oven.)

Ingredients

Mixing Everything Together

Roll dough into ball and place in plastic.

Roll refrigerated dough out on board.

Place almonds in center of each biscuit.

Sample the finish product.

Vincent Price Cheese Delights - Biscuits

As I mentioned, I don't think all the ingredients were included or something was left out. The cheesy biscuits turned out ok, but were not what I was expecting. Next time I will definitely be preparing one of the Price recipes from the cookbook which I know are correct. Nevertheless, it was a fun venture in cooking and I think Price would be proud of my culinary experimenting.