Theres only one savoury biscuit that I ever really want to make, and the recipe is as old as time. Cheese Straws.

Cheese Straws are a perennial favourite in my family, with perhaps the biggest fan being my Dad. They are just INSANELY moreish, and no surprise, because they are basically made from cheese pastry. They are tender and flaky and crispy and, as I like to put it, scrunchy-munchy.

I mean look at that pastry. It’s basically bristling with cheese.

Any salty snack cravings will be satiated by eating a cheese straw. The problem is that eating a cheese straw will create cheese straw cravings, and the only thing that satiates this is finishing them off. It’s a good recipe to have up your sleeve during the Holiday Season, as they make a great addition to pre-dinner snacks, and being freshly hand-made, they make a great little gift.

My mother has been making Cheese Straws since time immemorial. Like all good old-fashioned recipes, the exact quantities of the ingredients are a bit of a moveable feast: you’re looking for a nice pliable dough which isn’t too sticky, roll it out super thin and engage that compulsive urge to cut them all exactly the same size.

Old Fashioned Cheese Straws

ingredients

3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 – 3 cups (about 500g) grated cheese (very tasty cheddar)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup milk (approximately)

mixing

Combine the flour, salt, cheese and cayenne pepper in a large mixing bowl and mix to combine. Add the milk, little by little, and mix until a raggy dough forms. Press the dough into a ball. Working with about 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll out into a vague rectangle until about 1.5 mm thick. Cut into desired shapes (I usually go for thin rectangles about 1.5cm wide and 7cm long, but you could cut any shape you like – just make sure that the shapes are even in size to allow even browning across the batch).

Roll out and cut dough until you fill a tray, then bake one tray at a time, rolling and cutting the next lot of dough while you wait.

Transfer the cheese straws onto an unlined, ungreased baking tray. It’s fine to crowd them together. Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for about 7 minutes or until light gold in colour. Don’t let the cheese straws get too brown, as they taste bitter if they are “burnt”.

Transfer the baked cheese straws onto a wire rack – be gentle because they are fragile while hot – and let cool.

Enjoy!xxx