Sweet and Savory Straws

I love cheese straws. Puff pastry and cheese? What’s not to like?  Plus, thanks to Pepperidge Farms, they’re incredibly easy to make! As much as I love them, though, I wondered if I could come up something on the sweeter side. I like making cheese straws for appetizers, but I thought it’d be nice to have a dessert version, too. I ended up coming up with a couple of delicious new recipes to share with you, along with my favorite cheese straw recipe!

The first recipe is pretty familiar. Cinnamon-sugar makes everything yummy! That was a pretty obvious choice, but really great. Then I tried something out with almonds and loved the results! And, of course, there’s parmesan cheese straws.

Since the pre-made, frozen puff pastry sheets at the store come with two sheets, you can make both a sweet and a savory recipe at the same time, or you can just make a single sheet and save the rest for later. Of course, you can also use both sheets to make just one of these recipes.

Allow the pastry sheets to thaw at room temperature.

For cheese straws, you need one egg, lightly beaten, and parmesan cheese. For the almond straws, you still need the egg, but replace the parmesan with sugar and sliced, or chopped, almonds. For cinnamon-sugar straws, replace the parmesan with a cinnamon-sugar mixture.

No matter which recipe you choose to make, you’ll follow the same directions, starting with rolling the thawed pastry sheets to rectangles about 20 x 12 inches and brushing them with the beaten egg.

Next sprinkle half of the topping (cheese, almond mixture, or cinnamon-sugar) on one sheet and the rest on the other sheet.

Fold each sheet in half and roll again until they are about 16 x 14 inch rectangles.

Cut each sheet into 18 strips about 3/4 of an inch wide.

Twist the strips and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or Silpat sheets, leaving about one half inch between each strip. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer the straws to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

My favorites are the sweet straws, the cinnamon-sugar in particular.

Even as much as I love the sweet straws, the cheese straws are still one of my favorite appetizers ever!

The almond straws have a little extra crunch and are great for something different. They’re not quite as attractive as the other two, but they’re flavor more than makes up for it.

Try one, or all, of these. They’re so fast and easy, you can’t go wrong! As always, enjoy!

*All of the following recipes follow the same directions, so I have only written them out once.

Parmesan Cheese Straws
Makes 36

Ingredients

1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (2 ounces) parmesan cheese

Sugared Almond Straws
Make 36

Ingredients

1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup sliced, or chopped, almonds

Combine the sugar and almonds before following the instructions below.

Cinnamon-Sugar Straws
Makes 36

Ingredients

1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Combine the cinnamon and sugar before following the instructions below.

Instructions for all three recipes:

Allow the puff pastry sheets to thaw at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat sheets.

Roll the thawed pastry sheets to rectangles about 20 x 12 inches and brush them with the beaten egg. Sprinkle half of the topping (cheese, almond mixture, or cinnamon-sugar) on one sheet and the rest on the other sheet. Fold each sheet in half and roll again until they are about 16 x 14 inch rectangles. Cut each sheet into 18 strips about 3/4 of an inch wide. Twist the strips and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or Silpat sheets, leaving about one half inch between each strip. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer the straws to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature.