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Very Special Cheese Straws

Source of Recipe

Heritage of Southern Cooking


Recipe Introduction

These are excellent cheese straws. A wonderful cookbook - I recommend it highly. I have made these adding ½ c. toasted sesame seeds. That was very good. They are also good topped with chopped pecans. Make sure you use the best cheese that you can find – the better the cheese, the better the straws!

List of Ingredients

1 lb. aged sharp Cheddar – the best you can find
8 T. sweet butter
1 t. cayenne pepper
½ t. salt
2 c. sifted flour



Recipe

Grate the cheese by hand or in a food processor. Cut the butter into pieces and blend with the cheese, in the processor or in an electric mixer, until smooth.

Mix the cayenne pepper, salt and flour thoroughly. Add to the cheese mixture and mix well.

Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

You can prepare the straws with a cooky press, using the thin serrated ribbon blade to create 3” straws. Or you can roll into a tube (like refrigerated cooky dough) and cut into VERY THIN rounds with unflavored dental floss.
Lay the straws on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake until done, about 30 minutes. The straws should have a slight tinge of brown on the bottom, but not on the top. If they brown too much, they will toughen.

Makes about 45 straws, depending on how big you make them.