Cheese Stars Recipes

EASY CHEESE STRAWS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in cheese until blended. Combine flour, salt and cayenne; stir into cheese mixture until a dough forms. Roll into a 15x6-in. rectangle. Cut into thirty 6-in. strips. Gently place strips 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets., Bake until lightly browned, 15-20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

CHEESE STRAWS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Put the softened cheese and butter in the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer. Using the heaviest mixer paddle attachment, beat until the mixture has the consistency of whipped cream, 15 to 30 minutes.
• In a large bowl, sift 3 cups of the flour with the salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder. Gradually add the seasoned flour to the cheese mixture by large spoonfuls, beating well after each addition. Add the remaining 1 cup unseasoned flour incrementally until the dough is somewhat stiff but still soft enough to be pushed through a cookie press; you may not need to add all the flour.
• Lightly spray 4 cookie sheets with cooking spray. Put a portion of the dough into a cookie press fitted with the star tube and press the dough onto a cookie sheet in long strips that run the length of the pan. Repeat until the pan is full. Bake until straws are golden brown and crisp, about 20 minutes.
• With your hands or a sharp knife, break or cut the long strips into 3-inch lengths. Use a flat, thin spatula or an egg turner to remove the cheese strips from the pan. Allow them to cool on a wire rack. When they are completely cool, serve or store in a tightly covered container.

CHEESE STARS

Steps:

• Unroll the pastry and sprinkle most of the cheese over one half of the sheet. Fold the pastry in half to cover the cheese and seal it in.
• Dust your rolling pin and work surface with a little flour and put your pastry sheet on it. Roll it out until doubled in size.
• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
• Using cookie cutters, cut the pastry into shapes and put them on the prepared baking sheets. (Put the cutters on the dough close together so that less pastry is wasted. You can fold the trimmings back on themselves and re-roll to cut out more shapes.)
• Brush the shapes with milk and add a pinch of cheese and a sprinkling of your chosen topping, if using.
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 mins or until risen and golden, then transfer to a serving plate. Will keep in an airtight container for 3 days.

CHEESE STRAWS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet.
• In a large bowl cream butter and cheese. Stir in flour and salt; mix well. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch in thickness. Cut into 2 inch strips and sprinkle with ground red pepper. Place strips on prepared cookie sheet(s) 1 1/2 inches apart.
• Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until crisp.

SOUTHERN CHEESE STRAWS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grate cheese.
• In a food processor, pulse dry ingredients until combined, then add cheese and butter. Process until dough becomes smooth and has the texture of Play-Doh. Alternately, make the dough in a stand mixer by creaming cheese and butter until smooth. Then combine dry ingredients in a bowl and combine with butter mixture at low speed until smooth.
• Shape the dough into a cylinder, wrap with plastic wrap or parchment and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Or store in the refrigerator until ready to bake.
• Bring dough to room temperature and pack it into a cookie press fitted with a star disk. Pipe long ribbons of dough across the baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat, about an inch apart. Then cut into six-inch lengths. Repeat with remaining dough. Dough may also be hand-rolled into long ropes and cut to size, or shaped into a cylinder and sliced into rounds and baked.
• Bake for about 13 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown. Store between sheets of parchment or waxed paper in an airtight container. Will keep for up to three weeks.

CHEESE STARS

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 200C, or 180C fan assisted. Grease and flour two large baking trays.
• 2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, herbs and spices. Crumble in the stock cube and stir well until evenly distributed.
• 3. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• 4. Stir in the cheese until well distributed (I find using two forks to pull apart the clumps of grated cheese is a good method).
• 5. Mix in the egg yolk with your fingers, working the mixture to a dense dough. You may need to add a splash or two of water to achieve the correct consistency - the mixture should not be sticky, but should not leave crumbs in the bowl.
• 6. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of around 5mm - this isn't too vital, but will affect cooking times.
• 7. With a star-shaped cutter, stamp out as many shapes as you can from the dough and place, slightly spaced, on the baking sheets. Re-roll the dough and repeat until you have too little left to work with.
• 8. Brush each star with a little egg white and bake in the preheated oven for around ten minutes until golden.
• 9. Remove and cool on wire trays.

QUICK CHEESE STRAWS

Steps:

• heat oven to 220c/fan 200c/gas 7. Unroll a puff pastry, scatter over a couple of handfuls of grated Parmesan, then fold in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut into 1cm strips, then twist the strips 3-4 times. Lay on a baking sheet, scatter over more cheese and bake for 12 mins, or until golden. Leave to cool, then keep in an airtight container for up to 2 days. As these cheese straws are very delicate, roll them in kitchen paper before packing into a plastic container.