Cheese Straws

~Before you get busy pressing & baking, I offer this consideration (as your friendly RD). These are a treat. They are not difficult, but are fairly time consuming... and certainly in that category of extra calories. The cheese and butter are obviously dense sources of fat and the flour, not whole grain. So I don't promote these as an everyday health food. They are an iconic southern appetizer and no blog written by an Alabama-born girl would be complete without them.~ 

Ingredients 

1 pound high-quality Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese* 

3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) high quality butter* (not margarine), at room temperature

3 cups (360g) all-purpose or bread flour (save your White Lilly soft wheat flour for biscuits... it's a wonderful flour, but too tender for cheese straws)

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (or to taste... my husband and I like them a little hotter than this)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)

1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

1 to 2 tablespoons water (optional)

(*I am a huge fan of Cabot cheddar and butter and came to this conclusion years ago... long before I started to work for them as a client. But in the spirit of full disclosure about my relationship with Cabot, click here.) 

Technique

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

Shred your cheese; allow to come to room temperature (This is important. Really cold cheese/dough is HARD to press out even in a good cookie press). 

Cream with butter (I use my heavy duty stand mixer for all of this). 

Combine flour, salt, red pepper, & garlic powder, if desired.  Add flour mixture to cheese mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until well combined. Beat in Worcestershire sauce & hot sauce. 

(Here's where the "tricky" part comes in.  When I used to make these in FL, there was plenty of moisture in the air and I usually didn't add any water.  When I lived in TX, I’d have to add 1tablespoon of water or more to get the dough smooth enough to press out with my cookie press. Humidity clearly makes a difference.  Also, if your kitchen is cold/cool, you might have to microwave the dough just a LITTLE bit... don't want the butter/cheese to melt, but you need it warm enough to be able to press it out through the cookie press.) 

Press dough out into straws on baking sheets using a cookie press fitted with star tip (Note: this is up for debate. There is contingent of the cheese straw community that believes they should be piped out in a flat disc-like pattern. More disclosure: I’m a star-tip devotee.) 

 

Bake at 325 for 10-15 or until just barely lightly browned on the bottom (12 minutes seems to be the magic number for me). 

Then... and don't be tempted to skip this step... turn oven off and allow to cool slightly; put all the straws back in a warm oven to "dry out" (much like curing shortbread. I typically do this overnight.) The flavor won't change, but they'll taste crisper to start with and stay crisp much longer.