I will disclaim this with two things:
- I am not a good baker. Anyone can do this.
- I attempted this for a New Year's Eve party & messed it up, so I kind of needed to prove I could do it without botching it again.
Here we go!
Ingredients:
- One puff pastry sheet
- One egg
- Flour (for dusting)
- Extra sharp cheddar cheese (approx. 1 cup)
- Thyme
- Basil
- Sriracha sauce
- Hot sauce
- Salt & pepper
Pre-heat oven to 375° F before you get started.
Flour your surface, spread out the puff pastry dough sheet to a square (to the best of your ability), beat the egg with some hot sauce & a tablespoon of water in a side dish (I used Sriracha sauce, with a dash of Ghost Chili sauce, made with bhut jolokia pepper), then brush the dough side with your egg mix.
Grate cheese (fairly fine) evenly over the puff pastry sheet. I used Yancey's Fancy XXX Yellow Extra Sharp Cheddar for this. Sprinkle about a half-tablespoon of thyme, teaspoon of basil, some salt (my go-to is Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt) and fresh ground pepper over the cheese.
Roll lightly with a rolling pin to blend the ingredients into the puff pastry, reshape the dough into a square (if it got screwy after the rolling pin), then slice even strips (about an inch to an inch & a half wide) with a pizza slicer.
Twist & roll each of your strips, then lay out on a parchment-covered baking sheet. I prefer AirBake insulated baking sheets for even, non-burned oven-cooking.
Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes, take out of oven and flip/move each piece to ensure an even bake, and return to the oven for an additional 3-5 minutes.
That's it! Let cool so they don't fall apart on you, and enjoy.
Original Herbed Cheese straw recipe on Gojee.
