Tequeños are small plates of cheese wrapped in a soft dough typical of Venezuela, where salty fresh cheese is one of the star products. If you want to learn how to make the famous Venezuelan tequeños, keep reading and pay attention to all the tips in this recipe for appetizers with cheese.
Ingredients to make Baked Tequeños:
- 500 grams of wheat flour
- 250 grams of unsalted butter
- 2 Eggs
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- Water
- Semi-hard white cheese
How to make Baked Tequeños:
1 The tequeños can be fried but since we want to reduce a little calories from these cheese sticks, we will make them in the oven. Then, preheat the oven to 250ºC.
2 Heat a little water on one side and on the other, melt the butter and add the salt, set aside.
3 Form a volcano or crown with the sifted flour and add the melted butter with the salt and the egg in the middle. Mix well starting from the edges and gradually add the warm water as required. Knead by hand to form a smooth, elastic dough.
Tip: The egg is optional, although it makes the dough less dry and more manageable. It also helps to give a nice color to the tequeño.
4 After kneading for about 5 to 8 minutes, let the preparation rest in a lightly floured bowl for about 30 minutes.
5 Meanwhile, cut the cheese into sticks of 2 x 2 centimeters and 6 centimeters long and reserve in the fridge. It is important to keep the cheese cold to prevent it from moistening in the heat.
To make tequeños, fresh salty cheese of hard or semi consistency is used.
6 Divide the dough in 2 and spread with the help of a roller on a flat surface, previously floured. The dough sheet should be 1 ½ to 2 millimeters thick. It is important to dust the rolling pin with flour before starting to work to prevent it from sticking to the dough.
7 Once the dough is stretched, cut uniform strips of 2 to 3 centimeters and line the cheese sticks with them. The idea is to place the strip at one end of the piece of cheese and start wrapping from the tip to the top and turn around to end at the same starting point.
8 When rolling the sticks, special care must be taken to stretch the dough as it is rolled and with a little flour in one hand, compress the tequeño and the ends, to ensure that the dough is well fixed.
Trick: If the edges of the dough strip dry out when stretching and rolling, it means that it is very dry and you should proceed to knead it again, adding a little more water.
9 Take to the oven and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until we see that the dough begins to brown. Remove, wait a few seconds and enjoy the baked tequeños.
10 The tequeños can be frozen to cook them later, if this is the case a bed of tequeños should be placed in a container, then waxed paper and so on. To cook them, leave them out of the fridge for about 10 minutes.
