It’s a piece of cake to make these light and crispy cheese straws, which are inevitable accesories of beer drinking with friends. Just knead a dough, roll it out, brush with egg yolk, sprinkle cheese and caraway seeds over the top, cut into rectangles and let them go in the oven. That’s all. It sounds easy, doesn’t it?
As you can see, yeast is listed among the ingredients, which makes the sticks light and airy by increasing them in size. However, you don’t need to let the dough rise, yeast can exert its beneficent effects during those fifteen minutes the straws spend in the oven.
photo: zserbo.com
Ingredients:
- 500 g (~4 cups) flour
- 2 egg yolks
- 200 g (~3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) cold butter
- 250 g (~2 cups) sour cream
- 10 g (~2 tsp) salt
- 25 g fresh yeast (2 1/2 tsp dry yeast)
- 200 g (~1 2/3 cups) cheese, grated
- 1-2 tbsp caraway seeds
- 1 egg yolk for the egg wash
Preheat the oven to 220°C / 428°F.
Sift flour in a bowl. Add egg yolks, cubed butter, salt, yeast and sour cream. Quickly combine them until a pliant ball forms.
On a floured surface roll out the dough to a 2-3 mm thin square. Brush the beaten egg yolk onto the top, then scatter grated cheese and caraway seeds over it.
Cut into 4×1 cm rectangles and place them onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
