Cheese Straws Recipe - melissassouthernstylekitchen.com (2024)

FAQs

Why are my cheese straws not crispy? ›

It can be hard to tell when cheese straws are perfectly baked, but underbaking can lead to soft straws instead of crisp ones.

Cheese straws are best the first day or two after they are made, but will stay fresh in an airtight container on the counter for about 1 week. You can also freeze any uneaten cheese straws in an airtight container for up to 2 months.

Cheese straws can be a bit brittle when they're warm, so handle them gently to avoid breaking them in half. Cool completely before serving. Store for up to a week in an airtight container. If your cheese straws lose some of their crispness, re-crisp them briefly in a toaster oven and cool before serving.

To ensure the straws are crispy, bake them until you see them browning on the bottom. Otherwise, the straws will get soft when storing and even have a taste of flour.

Make sure that you use a high quality cheese. Bagged Kraft isn't high enough quality and won't provide stretch. Go for something you have to shred yourself and get the full-fat version of it. Make sure to shred it into fairly large pieces - the smaller your cheese shreds, the more likely they are to burn or brown.

My mother bakes Southern cheese straws, which require pushing a very stiff dough through a cookie press using a star pattern. For texture reasons, the dough has to be stiff and they don't taste the same without the star pattern (she's tried).

Stored in an airtight container, baked cheese straws will last up to 1 week. Unbaked dough can be stored in the fridge for 1 week or frozen for up to 1 month. To crisp up stored cheese straws that have gone slightly stale, bake them in a 350° oven for 3 to 4 minutes, keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't burn.

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.

However, an electric cookie press gives you a consistent and continuous pressing, which is ideal especially when decorating with icing. It can also save you time over a manual model. Note that using an electric cookie press does not mean you can press heavier doughs and batters.

Can I make spritz cookies without a press? Yes! Simply place your dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large icing tip (like a big open-star Ateco or Wilton tip) and pipe onto your cookie sheet, just like I do with my butter cookies.

How do you keep cheese straws crispy overnight? ›

They're best eaten warm from the oven, but if you need to make them ahead, leave them to crisp up in a cool oven (100C) before removing to an air-tight container – they're less likely to soften.

Cheese straws are easy to make ahead. You can either complete the recipe to serve up to a day ahead and serve at room temperature, or make the cheese straws up to two days ahead and refresh them on baking trays in a hot oven for 5min to crisp up again (a trick which works for refreshing stale/softened cheese straws).

Cheese Straws aren't something I think keep for a long time. Once they're baked, they really are best eaten within two days. After this they will start to get a little softer and loose their crisp texture. Keeping them in an airtight container helps prevent this.

If you find your cheese crisps are soggy once they've cooled, you likely didn't bake them enough. The edges should be brown before they are removed from the oven. Alternatively, you may have used a soft cheese that won't harden properly when it cools.

It is Calcium Lactate, formed by the lactic acid in cheese combining with calcium. Again, this happens only in fully aged, mature cheeses. Although this Calcium Lactate crystal is still found in cheese, the most commonly desired crystal and the one that is encouraged is that of the 'Tyrosine' amino acid.

In cheeses like Cheddars, those crunchy bits are more commonly calcium lactate. This is where lactic acid and calcium combine to form calcium lactate crystals.

As cheeses like cheddar mature, calcium and lactic acid combine to form calcium lactate crystals. Calcium lactate is generally found in aged cheddar, parmesan and gouda cheese. The crystals can form both inside and on the outside of the cheese, and can be a sign that moisture has collected inside packaging.