Easy Whole Wheat Cheese Straws.

Clearly, it was a cheesy kind of weekend in the How Sweet house.

Even down to the part where Mr. How Sweet cut the sleeves off three Dale Earnhardt t-shirts.

It really happened.

And then he ate all my cheese straws. He was batting 1000.

This recipe was a first for me. I had never made cheese straws before, but boy am I glad I did. And honestly – you can’t even tell that these use whole wheat flour. They taste like Cheez-It’s in stick form!

Not only are they super delicious, but they are simple too. I ended up using a wire rack for mine, which resulted in a fancy pants cheese straw.

It happened by accident.

But it totally worked! Just remember to spray your rack with non-stick spray. If not, you will have a giant mess on your hands.

Which isn’t so bad, especially since said giant mess will most likely end up in your belly.

As a warning, there will be lots of breakage and crumbling pieces. But that’s the fun part about it. Lots of crumbs and rejects to eat. And since they are all little pieces they don’t really count or add up. They are calorieless.

Who knew cheese straws could be so easy? Go make some for lunch.

Easy Whole Wheat Cheese Straws

from Gourmet (with a few of my own modifications)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

3/4 stick cold butter, cut into chunks

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour, cheese, salt and paprika into the food processor and pulse until mixer. Add cold butter and pulse until butter is in course crumbs. Stream in milk with processor running so dough comes together to form a ball.

Remove from food processor and lay on a floured surface. Flour a rolling pin and roll dough out until it is about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. It doesn’t have to be perfect and this depends on how thick you want the straws. Using a pizza cutter, cut straight strips of dough. Spray a baking sheet or wire rack with non-stick spray and lay dough on top. The strips of dough may rip, but just pinch them back together (you can see this in a photo above).

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool completely before moving from the sheet/rack. Some pieces will stay intact and others will break – just add them all to a bowl.

I’ll keep you posted on the state of Mr. How Sweet and his sleeves. Maybe I’ll even share some photos. It’s delightful.

Tagged as: appetizers, recipes