Cheese Straws

July 5, 2011

I am married to “one of those” kind of guys. The kind who thinks instructions are best slightly glanced at then tossed aside while emptying a box with a zillion parts. You know the type of box I am talking about, the wood has pre-drilled holes a bag with about 9,000 screws and an Allen wrench. Right? I am usually relegated to the position of “instruction reader.” Now The Husband is a great guy, he puts up with my weird habits, my jumping up and heading to the kitchen to rattle pans only to come back in the living room a while later wielding a spoon full of what ever to taste. He just shakes his head when I start describing some harebrained idea I have for some obscure food ingredient I picked up at my Fresh Market. He never complains when he is offered the “rejects” or not quite “perfect” items to munch on while the “golden children” who pass the WikiJan standard of public display head out the door to Commerce Center or which ever of the various office or friends I was cooking for pass him by. Many is the time he has been awoken by me standing there with a spoonful of Baked beans, soup or what have you telling him to “open up and taste this” at 7am. He has come to understand that cooking for people is part of my DNA and that there is no way to stop it.

By now you are probably wondering what all that has to do with Cheese Straws, right? Well lets just say that after 25 years of marriage I have found that the longer we are together the more we start doing things like each other… while I normally read directions though a few times before dumping everything out of the box I have found that I have adopted his “instructions are optional” attitude with cooking at times. You know what I am talking about the quick skimming of a recipe thinking you have a handle on it only to find yourself in the weeds in the middle at a time when you REALLY need that one key piece of info you missed by not reading everything with understanding. After last night’s big fat tasty flop I reversed gears and read this simple recipe, carefully, this time with success!

Cheese Straws

1 lb Ex. Sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 3/4 cups flour

4 Tablespoons Corn meal

1/2 cup butter, creamed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Cayenne or Chipotle pepper

1/2 cup water

Cream Butter in mixer then add all the dry ingredients into the butter and cream it together. Add the cheese and blend with butter/flour mixture.

Partial cheese infusion

Once everything is combined your dough should look like this…

Use a light hand with the flour as you don’t want to add to much extra flour as it will make them tough. Roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thick. Cut them into about 1″ x 3″ sections and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or till browned.