Traditional party food of the South.
These things should come with a warning label. They are so good it’s hard to stop at one.
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Typical cheese straws are made with traditional sharp cheddar cheese but I wanted pink cheese straws to celebrate my new granddaughter on the way. So, I grabbed white cheddar cheese to create a white base that would not conflict with the pink food coloring I decided to use. The recipe calls for one pound and each of these blocks are about half a pound so I needed two. I may be one ounce shy of a pound but it worked out nicely.
I used my Salad Master machine to shred my cheese but you can use whatever you have handy. Since we will be mixing everything in a food processor you can use that to grate your cheese and create fewer dirty dishes. Naturally, Drake was a wonderful helper. He made sure I did NOT get my fingers in the machine.
Into the food processor we go! Everything goes in at once. Pulse the food processor until everything is well blended.
Once the dough is created you can use food coloring to get whatever color you fancy. I think green ones for Saint Patrick’s Day would be lots of fun! Consider a rainbow of pastels for Easter!
I used the dough hook on my stand mixer to blend in the food coloring and create a dough ball. Once the dough came together I loaded it into a cookie press.
This electric cookie press is OLD. It came out of my mother’s kitchen. The name of this model is the Party Pistol by Montgomery Ward. I used the ribbon plate but you could easily use any shape you wanted. I have also rolled this dough out and cut it with cookie cutters or cut it into strips with a knife and baked them. These baked at 375 for 10 minutes.
Once the cheese straws turn lightly golden around the edges they are ready to be removed from the oven and transferred to a cooling rack. After they have cooled completely you can store them in an air tight container or bag and freeze them for later.
These cheese straws are the perfect party treat but we love to make them any time we get together. They are cheesy, chewy, and there’s just enough heat to make you come back for more.
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Cheese Straws
Equipment
- Baking pan
- food processor
- mixer optional
- Measuring cups
- measuring spoon
- cookie press If you do not have a cookie press you can roll and cut the dough.
Ingredients
- 1 pound Sharp cheddar cheese For food color cheese straws use white cheddar
- 1.5 cups All purpose flour
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper I used a tiny bit more
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees FYou can use regular orange colored sharp cheddar and make traditional cheese straws or use white cheddar for use with food coloring to achieve a unique look. Shred sharp cheddar cheese. Mix all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well blended. The original instructions from my mother say to pulse until a dough ball forms; however, I have not been able to get it there without the use of a mixer. I pulse the food processor until all is blended and then transfer it to my mixer with a dough hook to achieve the dough ball state. If you are adding food coloring I use a cookie press to create strips to bake but you can roll and cut this dough. Bake cheese straws for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Transfer the baked cheese straws to a cooling rack. Once cooled, cheese straws can be stored in a closed container or frozen to save for later.