Description
Take awesome puff pastry and make it into the easiest and best looking appetizer in these incredible cheese straws. Set these out on their own or with olives and charcuterie for something you’ll find your guests sneaking the whole night.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/3 batch of homemade puff pastry (about 1 pound) or thawed frozen puff pastry, preferably an all-butter brand like Dufour
- 4 oz cheese (113 g), grated: Cheddar, Swiss, Gruyere, Parmesan, Havarti, Monterey Jack, Manchego, Pecorino, Gouda, etc.
- A few sprigs of green herbs: rosemary, sage, dill, parsley, thyme, etc., chopped finely
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F (205 C). Line 2 baking sheets with silicone mats.
- Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle that is about 1/8” thick.
Sprinkle on about half of the cheese on one side of the pastry. Top it with half the pepper and paprika and half the herbs you chopped. - Press the toppings into the dough with a rolling pin .
- Turn the dough over and repeat the topping and rolling process.
- Cut the dough into strips about 1/2” wide with a pizza roller.
- Starting in the middle of each strip of pastry, turn your hands in opposite directions to twist the dough. Place the twisted dough strips on your prepared sheet pan. If you have dough hanging off the edge, just fold down the end so that it fits onto your tray.
- Bake the cheese twists for 16-18 minutes until the dough is crisp, and the cheese is melted and just starting to brown.
- Once you take them out of the oven, immediately peel off the strips onto a wire rack. If you have cheese straws that are stuck together, you can run a pizza roller in between them.
- Cheese straws can be kept at room temperature for about a week in an airtight container, though they look lovely in a tall jar too!
Sprinkle on about half of the cheese on one side of the pastry. Top it with half the pepper and paprika and half the herbs you chopped.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Category: Pastry
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: French
