Cheese Bites

It's not a very inspiring name, is it? But I can guarantee that you will eat one of these, go 'mmMMmmm' and then reach for another. And another. They're tangy, salty, crispy, smoky and wickedly moreish.

I always make these with Stilton, but if you’re truly Stilton averse, you can use a strong cheddar. Serve them with drinks before dinner or even as a starter with a dip made up of mayonnaise, wholeseed mustard and perhaps a little finely chopped chilli.

Ingredients

• 200g stilton
• 8 slices white bread
• 12 rashers smoked streaky bacon
• Cocktail sticks

Slice the cheese and lay it between two slices of bread to make a cheese sandwich. Cut the crusts off and then cut each sandwich in half lengthways and slice it again three or four times across (depending on the size of the bread you’re using) to make ‘soldiers’ or finger-sized mini sandwiches. Using the flat of a knife blade, flatten out the streaky rashers, lengthening them and then cut into sections of three or four pieces per rasher (again, depending on the nature of the rashers you have!) so that each piece is enough to wrap generously around a finger. And then do precisely that, securing each in place using a cocktail stick. Repeat until you run out of stilton, bread, rashers or oven space.

Put them all in a baking tray lined with foil and bake them in the oven at GM6/200C/400F for 30 minutes. Peel them off the foil and serve with plenty of drinks – they’re pretty salty!