How to make cheese straws

This morning I finished writing up the cheese straw recipe I did yesterday. My recipes website is only for sweet stuff, so I thought I may as well put it on this blog. The recipe is the same as for making flaky pastry, except you put cheese and pepper in it as well. You can also use mustard as well if you like.

Cheese Straws Recipe

Cheese Straws are strips of flaky cheese pastry, making a delicious savoury snack.

Ingredients

• 200 g (7 oz) Self raising flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 150 g (5 oz) Butter or Baking margarine
• Water
• Extra mature cheddar cheese
• Ground black pepper
• Egg (beaten) to glaze

Directions

Weigh the margarine and split into four equal pieces. Put three of the quarters to one side. Cut up the other quarter and put in the blender on top of the flour and salt.

Blend the flour, salt and marg together. When well blended, keep blending and add in a bit of water. Wait about 30s then add some more water, repeating until the mix clumps together.

Remove the pastry and roll out on a floured surface. Roll out to about 3mm thick. Cut one of the margarine quarters into thin slices and spread over the pastry. Add grated cheese and grind a small amount of black pepper over the pastry.

Fold the top third of the pastry over the middle third, then fold the bottom third up. Fold up the edges and roll out again. Do the same thing, covering with margarine, cheese, and a small amount of black pepper, then folding it up two more times.

After folding it up for the third time, put in the fridge for at least half an hour to cool.

Switch the oven on to pre-heat at 200°C (180°C fan oven or 400°F or Gas Mark 6). Take the pastry out the fridge and roll out to about 8mm-10mm thick. Cut into slices, and place the slices on baking sheets.

Brush the cheese straws with the egg, then cook in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Leave to cool on the trays for about 10 minutes then move to a wire rack.

The rest of the morning I looked for a subject to write an article on for my photo tips website, and then started writing the article.

In the afternoon I did some Ukraine holiday planning, cut out some pogs in Photoshop, and did some more work on my ebay wordpress plugin.

In the evening I watched an episode of Boukengers and then the England v. Holland game. Most of the game was quite boring, but when I popped out to the loo, Holland scored two goals. Typical. The final score was 3-2 to Holland, though one of England's goals should have been offside. I thought England player better than they normally do.