Chipotle Cheese Straws

So this past Friday, we had a fancy party – it was my birthday.  It was also AP’s half-birthday, Halloween weekend, and a few months since our last fancy party, so it was a great time for it.  And since you can’t really have a good fancy party without snacks, we were cooking pretty much all day in preparation.

So one thing I made was cheese straws – which are pretty much exactly what they sound like.  I guess cheese sticks would be better – you definitely can’t drink soda through them.  Unless you waited long enough, although they’d probably sog apart before you actually got to drink anything.

Anyway, here’s my take on the classic cheese straw – I kind of simplified some of the other recipes I saw around, and added chipotles for a little after-swallow kick.

YOU WILL NEED:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (soft/room temp.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp chipotle pepper flakes

YOU WILL NEED TO:

1. Preheat oven to 300 F
2. Using a hand mixer, mix all ingredients together in a largish mixing bowl until it balls into dough.  This dough should stay together pretty well – add more flour if it’s too sticky, add a bit of water if it’s too dry.
     
   
3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, and cut into strips with a knife or pizza cutter.  Thickness is up to you, I cut them at about 1/2'”.
    
   
4. Lay out on a cookie sheet – I put a twist or two into each one.
   
   
5. Bake for about 15 minutes – until slightly browned.
   
   
6. Take them off the sheet, put them on a rack to cool.
   
   
7. Eat and rejoice!  Makes around 30 straws, depending on thickness.

**Note – I used two different kinds of baking sheets to cook these, because they were the only clean ones left.  The ones on the regular cookie sheet turned out great – they were perfect.  The straws baked on an airbake sheet, however, did not fare so well – they were too puffy and soft, and I had to put them in a bowl, because they were all crumbly.  Still tasted great, though.