Here’s my take on cheese sticks/straws – a great instamatic throw-together crowd pleaser. Once again, there is no recipe, just a combination of good quality ingredients.
Ingredients: A package of puff-pastry sheets, some melted butter, and some cheese. The go-to cheese is usually grated Parmesan. Manchego would work well. I used a combination of Parmesan and aged Cheddar. It should be a firm and flavorful cheese.
Recipes approach these snacks in one of two fundamental ways – either by using two sheets of puff-pastry and making a cheese sandwich (of sorts) or by using a single sheet of puff-pastry and embedding cheese into both sides (a reverse cheese sandwich). I’ll illustrate both approaches.
Version 1 – The Reverse Cheese Sandwich (my terminology)
Preheat oven to 425° F.
Thaw a single sheet of puff-pastry according to directions.
Note – The puff-pastry is ready for action when you can unfold it easily without it resisting or wanting to break – 30 or 40 minutes (no longer). It should be pliable but not soft.
Unfold the puff-pastry onto a sheet of parchment paper.
Brush with melted butter over the entire surface.
Cover liberally with cheese. That’s a little more than a cup there.
Cover the cheesed puff-pastry with another sheet of parchment paper.
Work the cheese into the puff-pastry using a rolling pin. Roll firmly, but not angrily.
You’re just looking to embed the cheese in the puff-pastry. The pastry will stretch a little bit – that’s fine.
Flip everything over. Remove the parchment paper from the top of the puff-pastry (exposing the side without the cheese).
Brush the un-cheesed side with melted butter and add cheese – another cup of so.
Cover with parchment paper and work the cheese into the puff-pastry using a rolling pin. Roll firmly, but not angrily. You are simply repeating the same process from side A on side B – embedding cheese into both sides of the puff-pastry to make a reverse cheese sandwich (cheesy on the outside – pastry on the inside).
So…you wind up with a sheet of puff-pastry that has cheese embedded into both sides.
Using a pizza cutter or a knife, divide-up your cheesy pastry into strips.
Prepare a baking sheet by cutting a piece of fresh parchment paper to fit inside and spraying with quick-release spray.
Twist-up each strip. Place the strips, with some space between them. on a prepared baking sheet.
Bake at 425° F until puffy, fragrant, and starting to brown – about 11 to 13 minutes.
Cheese sticks/straws after baking.
Allow them to cool for 15 minutes or so – long enough for the melted cheese to firm-up so you can lift the cheese sticks/straws from the baking sheet without them tearing.
Version 2 – The Cheese Sandwich (again, my terminology)
This version just uses two sheets of puff-pastry with the cheese sandwiched in the middle. It makes thicker sticks/straws.
Preheat oven to 425° F.
Note – As before, you will need to thaw the puff-pastry sheets first. The puff-pastry is ready for action when you can unfold it easily without it resisting or wanting to break – 30 or 40 minutes (no longer). It should be pliable but not soft.
Unfold the puff-pastry sheets onto parchment paper. Brush both with melted butter over their surfaces.
Cover liberally with cheese. Here, I have used about 2 cups.
Place the other puff-pastry sheet on top of the cheese with the butter side facing down. Crimp the edges using your fingers.
Cover everything with a sheet of parchment paper.
Note – So this time the cheese is embedded between two sheets of puff-pastry – no cheese on the outside. Roll firmly, but not angrily.
The rolled-out puff-pastry sandwich of cheeses.
Everything else continues from this point the way it did in the first example.
Using a pizza cutter or a knife, divide-up your cheesy pastry into strips.
Prepare a baking sheet by cutting a piece of fresh parchment paper to fit inside and spraying with quick-release spray.
Twist-up each strip. Place the strips, with some space between them. on a prepared baking sheet.
Note – You can see in the pictures that the strips here are a little broader.
Bake at 425° F until puffy, fragrant, and starting to brown – about 11 to 13 minutes.
Cheese sticks/straws after baking.
Allow them to cool for 15 minutes or so – long enough for the melted cheese to firm-up so you can lift the cheese sticks/straws from the baking sheet without them tearing.
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