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Easy Cheese Straws

5.0(152)

These spicy cheese cookies, known as cheese straws in the South, are a popular cocktail snack, though they’re rarely strawlike. Pinkie-size biscuits is more like it, with a ridged surface that comes from extruding the dough through a cookie press. Supermarkets in the South often carry tins of stale cheese straws, and only occasionally does one encounter them home-baked, which is especially unfortunate, because few foods earn more raves for less work. To make them, you simply toss grated extra-sharp Cheddar in the food processor with some softened butter, flour and crushed red pepper and whir it with a tablespoon of cream until it makes a ball. Skip the cookie press. (The press, we're thinking, may be the reason nobody makes them at home.) In fact, it's far easier and more appealing to make true “straws” by cutting long, chopstick-slender strands from a rectangle of thin, rolled-out dough. A steady hand is required to transfer the strands of dough to a baking sheet, but this dough is incredibly forgiving — tears can be patched just by touching two broken ends together. If it weren't for the blade in the processor, a small child could make them.

by Matt Lee And Ted Lee·published 2002-11-27

Open original recipe

Appetizer

Servings

30 straws

Total time

30 min

Calories / serving

41 kcal

Ingredients (6)

serves

4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
4 tablespoons butter, softened and cut into 4 piecesbutter
3/4 cup flour (more for rolling dough)flour
1/2 teaspoon saltsalt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepperred-pepper-flakes
1 tablespoon half-and-half

Instructions (2 steps)

01Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, combine cheese, butter, flour, salt and red pepper, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add half-and-half, and process on low speed until dough forms a ball.
02On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured pin, roll dough to a rectangle 8 by 10 inches and 1/8 inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut dough laterally into thin strips, 1/4 to 1/3 inch wide. Gently transfer each ''straw'' to an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving a 1/4-inch space between them, and bake 17 minutes, or until the ends are barely browned. Let cool.