Cheese straws
A twist of pastry that keeps for days in a tin
Makes about 10 twists from one sheet of pastry. They keep in an airtight tin somewhere cool for four to five days, or two days if you are having chemotherapy.
A cheese straw is one of the easiest pastries in the book, and one of the most useful, because it keeps. Ready-made puff pastry does the folding for you, and the trick that keeps the cheese where you put it, rather than scattered across the baking sheet, is rolling it inside the dough before you cut, not sprinkling it over the top. Twist each strip hard so it holds its shape as it puffs. They keep for four or five days in a tin, which makes them the one thing in this book you can eat with your fingers, standing up, without cooking anything at all first.
Ingredients
Contains: Gluten, Milk, Egg
- 1ready-rolled white puff pastry sheet, about 320 g, kept cold until needed
- 75 gCheddar, finely grated
- 1egg, beaten, for the egg wash
Method
Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C) and line a large baking sheet with baking parchment.
Unroll the pastry, still on its paper, onto a board.
Scatter two-thirds of the Cheddar evenly over one half of the pastry. Fold the other half over to cover it, then roll gently with a rolling pin until the cheese is pressed in and sealed inside.
Rolling the cheese inside rather than on top stops it burning before the pastry is properly puffed.
Cut the pastry into strips about 1.5 cm wide. Twist each strip several times along its length and lay it on the baking sheet, pressing the ends down so it holds its twist.
Brush the twists with the beaten egg and scatter over the last of the Cheddar.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until puffed, deep golden and the cheese on top is bubbling and turning brown at the edges. Cool on the sheet for a few minutes before you move them. They are fragile while hot and firm up as they cool.
Watch-points
- White puff pastry only. Keep the top plain, none of the poppy or sesame seeds a shop-bought version might carry.
- Roll the cheese inside the pastry rather than leaving loose shreds on top, so nothing flakes off in pieces too big to manage.
Make it more nourishing
- Use 100 g of Cheddar rather than 75, and scatter over 2 tablespoons of finely grated Parmesan with the last of the Cheddar.
- Serve them with a small bowl of warm cheese sauce for dipping. It turns a snack into more of a meal.
- Brush the twists with 10 g of melted butter as they come out of the oven.
Swaps
- Instead of Cheddar, use Gruyère or another mature hard cheese
- it melts the same way and holds its shape once baked
- Instead of ready-rolled puff pastry, use a block of white puff pastry, rolled out yourself to 3 mm
- gives a slightly thinner, crisper straw