Cheese Straws Recipe
This Cheddar Cheese Straws Recipe is quick and easy made with everyday ingredients. They’re a delicious little savory snack for serving at parties and casual get togethers.
Ingredients to Make Southern Cheese Straws Recipe
Cheese straws are a super popular appetizer in the South. In fact, I can’t remember a holiday season when they didn’t make an appearance with our other favorite holiday snacks. They’re a sort of savory shortbread a cross between a cheese stick and cheese crackers. These Southern cheese straws are addictive and they’re guaranteed to become a family favorite. Ingredients to make Cheddar Cheese Straws: (Scroll down for the full printable recipe card.)
- Cheese – Three cups freshly shredded sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese.
- Butter – Unsalted butter that’s softened so it will whip smoothly with the cheese.
- Flour – All purpose flour forms the base of the cheese dough.
- Seasonings – Salt, cayenne, smoked paprika, granulated garlic or garlic powder and onion powder.
How to Make the Best Cheese Straws Recipe
- Heat Oven and Prepare Pans – Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Whip the Butter and Cheese – Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat together shredded cheese and butter until creamy, fluffy and fully combined.
- Flour Mixture – Use a whisk to sift together flour, salt, cayenne, paprika, garlic and onion powder.
- Combine – Lower the speed of the mixer gradually adding the sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Beat until fully combined.
- Pipe the Dough – Using a cookie press with the star attachment OR a pastry bag with a jumbo open star tip, pipe into long strips on a piece of wax paper. Use a sharp knife to cut the stirps into 3-inch pieces and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat until all dough is used.
- Oven – Bake per the cook time in the recipe until lightly golden brown.
- Remove to a Wire Rack – Cool completely.
Tips for Making Cheese Straws
- Kitchen Tools You’ll Need: A stand mixer or a hand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, measuring cups and spoons, a whisk, medium bowl and large bowl, a pastry bag with a jumbo open star tip or a cookie press with the star disc attachment, a wire rack for cooling, a spatula, sharp knife and baking sheet for baking.
- Use Freshly Grated Cheese: This is one of those recipes where shredding your own cheese by hand is required. Grate the cheese while it’s cold using the fine grate side of a box grater, a rotary cheese grater or with a food processor.
- Bring the Cheese to Room Temperature: After grating the cheese, cover it with plastic wrap and let it come to room temperature. This will ensure it combines with the butter properly and only takes 30-45 minutes or so of stand time to do.
- Cream the Butter and Cheese Until Creamy: When creaming together the butter and shredded cheese the cheese mixture should literally become more like whipped cheese butter and have a smooth and creamy texture. That’s why it’s important to use freshly grated room temperature cheddar cheese as it will break down and form the cheesy butter mixture much more effectively than pre-shredded cheese purchased at the grocery store.
- How to Serve Cheese Straws: These savory cheese straws can be added to your appetizer menu, served with dip, alongside salads in place of croutons, soups or packaged and given as a delicious homemade gift for friends and neighbors.
Recipe Variations
- Cheese: You can experiment using different varieties of cheese. Use pepper jack cheese for a spicy variation.
- Spices: You could use chili powder, black pepper or white pepper in place of cayenne pepper.
- Herbs: You could customize the flavor using dried Italian seasoning, oregano, rosemary or thyme. Sift them with the dry ingredients and proceed with the recipe.
- Alternate Shapes: If the cookie press you’re using doesn’t have a star disc, you can make this cheese straw dough into any shape you like. You can make them square, round or oval in the shape of a cracker. You may also be able to attach an open star pastry tip to some cookie presses that are made to be fitted with that attachment.
- Expect the Yield to Vary Based on Shape: Depending on how the dough is divided, the yield may be greater. Likewise, when using a pastry bag that’s fitted with a tip that’s larger than a cookie press, it may be less. I’ve made this recipe using both techniques and find that a cookie press is easier and makes light work of piping the cheese straws dough.
Storage and Leftovers
- Leftovers: Store baked Cheese Straws in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.
- Freezer: You can freeze baked Cheese Straws for up to 2 months.
More Easy Appetizers and Snacks to Make
- Homemade Breadsticks are ready for dipping in cheese fondue or pizza sauce.
- Shrimp Cocktail with homemade cocktail sauce and lemon dill sauce.
- Easy Italian Meatball Bites.
- Cheese Stuffed Pretzel Bites are ready for dipping in mustard or warm cheese sauce.
- Candied Bacon Breadsticks are always the hit of the party.
- Loaded Mashed Potato Spring Rolls are crispy handheld delights.
- Simple to make Garlic Cheese Rolls.
- Chili Lime Shrimp Bites from Barefeet in the Kitchen.
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Helpful Kitchen Items:
Cheese Straws Recipe
Servings: 80 servings
Calories: 46kcal
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese (finely grated while cold then covered and brought to room temperature)
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic or garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed, beat together shredded cheese and butter. Beat for 10-15 minutes OR until creamy, fluffy and fully combined.
- In a separate bowl, use a whisk to sift together flour, salt, cayenne, paprika, garlic and onion powder.
- Lower the speed of the mixer gradually adding the sifted dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Beat until fully combined.
- Using a cookie press with the star attachment OR a pastry bag with a jumbo open star tip, pipe into long strips on a piece of wax paper. Use a sharp knife to cut the stirps into 3-inch pieces and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat until all of the dough is used.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on the pan for 5-10 minutes then carefully remove from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to one week.
Notes
- Use Freshly Grated Extra-Sharp Cheddar Cheese: This recipe requires shredding your own cheese by hand. Grate the cheese while it’s cold using the fine grate side of a box grater or with a food processor, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it come to room temperature. This will ensure it will break down and combine with the butter properly.
- Alternate Shapes: If the cookie press you’re using doesn’t have a star disc, you can make this cheese straw dough into any shape you like. You can make them square, round or oval in the shape of a cheese cracker. You may also be able to attach an open star pastry tip to some cookie presses that are made to be fitted with that attachment.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 46kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 43mg | Potassium: 8mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 0.03g | Vitamin A: 107IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 0.2mg
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I made the cheese straws for Christmas. HIT! however, I didn’t have any way to make them pretty, so I just rolled them into logs and let the chips fall where they may. LOL. Apologized to my family, but they were so busy eating them and said who cares, taste is all that matters.. thanks for the recipe. But I will try harder next time to improve on the looks.
Hi Suzie, I love that you improvised! You can roll this cheese dough into a log, and wrap in plastic wrap. Pop it into the fridge, kind of like you would cookie dough until it’s firm. You can slice into rounds and bake it that way, in the future. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review!
great!
After mixing how long can mixture sit on counter covered before running thru cookie press? Thank you, happy baking.
The dough should be piped into straws after it’s made. There shouldn’t be any lag time between making the dough and piping it.
These cheese straws were fantastic !!! I could have eaten the entire batch!
Thank you!
I found my dough was really soft…too soft. The taste was really good, but the crackers when baked were almost mushy or flaky or just not like crackers should be. I Canada we can’t get sharp cheese so I used old cheese and Imperial sharp cheese which I grated cold. How was your dough stiff? What went wrong with mine? They didn’t seem cooked even though I left them in longer than 12 minutes. I rolled them out, and had to use parchment paper and rolled a pizza cutter over it, but the dough even stuck to that.
The dough should never be soft for these cheese straws, in fact, it can sometimes be a challenge to pipe due to being stiff. Was the flour accurate? If the flour wasn’t measured accurately it could result in what you say. Otherwise, was the cheese a soft cheese or a hard cheese? The cheese used should be a hard cheddar cheese or again, it could change the texture. I would agree, something is off based on your description and it sounds as if there wasn’t enough flour. This recipe works, just make sure you measure properly and use hard cheese.
Does a icing gun work as good as a cookie press? Also, Does the dough need to be warm for it to go through the cookie press or icing gun?
You can use an icing gun with a similar size barrel and tip, yes. I’m not certain I understand what you mean by “warm” but there’s no need to chill this dough, it would be too firm to push thru a cookie press.
Can I use the pre-shredded cheddar cheese, if that is all I have? Will it still turn out good? I hate to waste 3 cups of pre-shredded cheese if not.
The dough for these cheese straws is stiff by nature even when using freshly grated cheese. Pre-shredded cheese has anti-caking agents added which isn’t ideal in this application as it could make it even drier. I highly recommend using fresh.
Wow, this dough is really stiff. Using a piping bag is almost impossible. I just rolled it out and used a pizza cutter to score the dough. I highly recommend using a press of some kind.
That being said, they are really good. I will make them again.
This cheese straw dough is supposed to be stiff in order to hold its shape while baking. In the narrative it’s discussed that you could use a pastry bag with a jumbo tip but using a cookie press is the ideal way to make these. From the narrative: I’ve made this recipe using both techniques and find that a cookie press is easier and makes light work of piping the cheese straws dough.
Do you chill the dough?
It’s not necessary.
These were really great! Made them twice I researched many other recipes to see the cheese/ flour proportions because I shredded a 8 oz block of cheese, and another 1/2 block of 8 oz cheese, thinking I would get 3 cups of shredded cheese but got 4 full cups, so I wasn’t sure if I should go with the wt or cups measurements Dough was easy to work with and they tasted great and I punted and used 10 oz of extra sharp white cheddar cheese. Taste was fantastic but I thought they melted down a little even tho I chilled the dough before baking , so perhaps 8 oz would’ve kept the shape better. Idk
Do you freeze these before baking or after?
I would bake them and then freeze.
This recipe is uncomplicated and produces excellent results! I’ve made these cheese straws twice now after using other recipes and I’ve decided this one is my favorite although I double the amount of cayenne pepper. A keeper!
Are they freezeable?
You can freeze cheese straws, yes.
Which cookie press do you use for your cheese straws? I usually make cheese coins because I don’t have a cookie press that will make straws, but would like to get one.
Thanks!
My cheese press has a star disc that creates the shape for these cheese straws. If you already have a cookie press, look for that disc it’s quite common.
I’m very interested in making these. Do you have a favorite cheddar for this recipe? Also, I find cup measurements for cheese to be very inaccurate and much prefer weight measurements. Does the “standard” of 4 oz cheese equals 1 cup shredded hold here? Thanks so much! I have a new cookie press I can’t wait to try. 🙂
I don’t have a favorite cheddar but always grate this myself. You should be able to measure this in a cup with no issues, if you’re more comfortable then yes, 4 ounces (1 cup shredded) will work.
Thanks so much for your quick response! I’ll be sure to post a review once I’ve made them.
My pleasure.
I have seen similar recipes where the dough is rolled into a log and refrigerated, and then thinly sliced for a cracker. Would you be able to do that with this recipe?
You can make them into crackers, yes.