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Cheese Straws
5 tablespoons flour 1/8 teaspoon salt few grains cayenne 1/2 tablespoon shortening 1/2 cup bread crumbs 1/3 cup grated cheese 1 tablespoon milk Mix flour and seasonings, chop in shortening, add crumbs, and grated cheese and mix well, add milk to make a stiff dough, knead well; roll into a sheet one-fourth inch thick and cut into strips one-third inch wide. Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes.
A small-batch cheese straw stretched with bread crumbs rather than built on pastry, which makes it crisp and sandy rather than flaky. The quantities are tiny, so measure carefully.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven here means 350-375F. Ten minutes is right for strips a quarter inch thick; pull them when the edges color, since the cheese browns fast and turns bitter.
- The crumbs are the hingeDry, fine bread crumbs are what this dough wants, not soft fresh ones; soft crumbs will absorb the milk and slump, making an even sheet harder to roll.
- Grated cheeseRecipes of this kind generally call for a hard, dry cheese such as aged Cheddar or Parmesan. Pre-shredded cheese coated in anti-caking starch will make the dough dusty; grate your own on the fine side.
- ShorteningHalf a tablespoon is about 7 g. Butter works and tastes better, though the straws will spread very slightly more.
- Milk to make a stiff doughOne tablespoon is a starting point, not a rule. Depending on how thirsty the crumbs are, you may need a teaspoon or two more; stop as soon as the dough holds together under pressure.
- Knead wellAn unusual instruction for so short a dough. The recipe calls for it, so knead until the dough is cohesive; no reason is given in the text.
- CuttingA quarter inch thick, a third of an inch wide, cut to whatever length suits the plate; the recipe does not specify a length. A pizza wheel or bench scraper gives cleaner edges than a knife.
- YieldFive tablespoons of flour is a very small batch, roughly 20 to 24 short straws. Double or triple it if you are serving more than two people; the proportions scale straight up.