Spicy cheddar cheese straws are a perfect appetizer, garnish for a salad or dipper for soup. Don’t believe me? Just look at my post from yesterday!
Store-bought puff pastry, layered with paprika and spicy cayenne, and stuffed with as much cheddar cheese as they can hold. Plus salty Parmesan because more cheese is better.
I’ve been watching so much of the Great British Baking Show that I am now convinced I can make puff pastry from scratch. Life goal right there. I’ll make sure to let you all know how it goes.
As I noted with the Gruyere & Thyme Cheese Straws, these can be a little tricky to make. Just follow my tips below and you’ll be good!
A couple tips from my cheese straw failures:
- Keep the puff pastry cold, returning it to the fridge or freezer any time you need to re-chill it.
- Try to keep the cheese tucked into your dough when rolling and don’t try to sprinkle the all the extra cheese that falls out of after twisting all over because it will turn into a cheesy glue that will probably make you want to cry when you’re trying to get your straws off your baking pan. You can definitely sprinkle some of the strays on top but make sure you get them onto your twists versus all over the baking pan.
- Most importantly, if you have silicone baking mats (e.g. Silpat)*, USE THEM! If you don’t have them, but have ever wanted to buy one and/or you want to make these, now’s the time to get one. These babies stick like you wouldn’t believe. Silpat sells silicone mats in different sizes, so you can pick the one (or ones!) you think will be most useful for you.
- Let them cool to warm or room temperature on the baking sheets before attempting to remove. The pastry will crisp up and the cheese will harden and it will be easy to get them off.
Exercise a little restraint and a little patience and you will be rewarded with these crispy, crunchy, cheesy, buttery babes that are total GBD.
[tasty-recipe id=”31316″]
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