As we continue our immersion into Southern culture, we’ve come to remember that just as nearly every southern family has a ‘family recipe’ for grits, gumbo and fried chicken, they also do for Cheese Straws.
A staple of southern home entertaining for decades (if not centuries), even our parents reared in various locations on the Texas coast occasionally served some version of cheese straws nearly fifty some-odd years ago as She Who Must Be Obeyed and I recall long-ago family neighborhood parties, particularly around the fall and winter holidays.
One of our favorite dive bar | burger joints here locally puts a version of these out on the bar occasionally during happy hour. Theirs seem to be a bit more spunky in terms of spice and flavor, along the lines of the chemical-laden but damned-tasty-when-you’re-in-the-mood Cheez Its, though their version ends up being a cracker three to four inches long and about an inch wide.
They wouldn’t share their recipe though showed me how they cut their long slices (like slicing bacon slices off a pork belly) using a rolling pizza cutter. Just a bit of digging around yielded a generous handful of good looking recipes; this one is based on Edna Lewis’ published in Food and Wine a few years ago with a bit more spice and another type of cheese thrown in to boot – we’ve very creatively christened it Spicy Cheese Straws.
(If we’d have only known about these back in the younger kid days we’d have saved several thousand in Goldfish cracker costs and fed the kids something a damned sight healthier by making a less spicy version of this cracker at home…)
I’m sure real Southern cooks and chefs could (will) find plenty to correct in this recipe; that’s just fine – some recipes call for the dough to rolled very thin (1/8 inch), cut into small squares or rounds and docked. This version worked like magic for the guys at the bar and we’re all for great taste and easier preps.
Give these a try next time you’re needing some finger food for folks coming over and I can just about guarantee you’ll be reaching for the recipe again.
1 and 2/3cups unbleached AP flour
1 and 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
6 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
2 ounces decent parmesan, grated (it will be almost as large in volume grated as the cheddar)
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp. ice water + a dribble more if needed
Get ready. Mix the flour, mustard, salt, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper and garlic together well. Grate the cheeses. Tear off a large sheet of wax paper.
Beat it. Using your stand mixer, combine the butter and cheeses and mix on low until well combined. Add the flour roughly 1/3 cup at a time and mix until crumbly looking and well blended. Sprinkle the water on (2 tbsp. to start) and mix for a minute; the dough will take a bit of time to come together but will…
Shape it. Turn out on a lightly floured surface, knead 6 or 7 times and then roll into a 1 inch thick, roughly 12 by 9 inch rectangle. Fold the wax paper over and place in the fridge for an hour.
Bake it. Preheat the oven to 425 and cover a baking sheet with parchment. Cut the dough in half, then slice off 1/4 inch thick slabs (as if you were cutting bacon off a cured pork belly) and lay the cheese straws out on the parchment.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, watch the last few as tradition apparently holds that these should be perfectly golden brown (not too brown). Let cool for a minute then transfer to a rack – they really crisp up as they cool to room temperature.
Serve. Grab a cold adult beverage (hard cider and Lazy Magnolia Brewing’s Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale for us last night) and some friends and go to it. You’ll be saying y’all in no time and trying to find a college football game on TV.
Enjoy.
