Alicia's easy cheese straws

'Alicia Wilkinson, a cookery school regular, made this recipe at the school during a visit from South Africa. Her cheese straws are so delicious that I had to include them here'

Rachel Allen, 'Bake', p130

Well, firstly apologies for the lack of blogging lately.  It's been a mad month - Nigel has been working pretty solidly, so my days have passed in a whirl of pre-school runs and baby feeding, then my evenings in catching up on what I should have achieved during the day. Plus, Little Miss Megan has gone through a phase of refusing to sleep during the day, so I really haven't had a minute. However, before you start feeling too sorry for me, I've been doing some fun things, and even squeezed in some baking time.  I owe you 4 blogs!

On 13th March, my big brother reached the grand old age of 40.  2 days later, my nephew Eddie turned 6.  So, Evan; Megan and I had a lovely long weekend in Wales, helping them celebrate. Here's Jon, blowing out the candles on his birthday cake!

Growing up, Jon was never the biggest fan of my cooking.  In fact, if I ever made a dish  in school and brought it home, he'd flatly refuse to eat it.  I don't think it was that bad!  However, one day I made some cheese straws and he wolfed them down.  They came top of his list when I asked what his favourite baked treat was.  So of course,  I had to try out Rachel's version for a birthday treat.

I'm pretty sure that the version I originally made was just a simple dough with some grated cheddar mixed in.  Rachel's version is a bit more involved, but very yummy and definitely worth a go.  It's made with a rectangle of puff pastry, which is brushed with egg white and sprinkled with Cheddar, Parmesan and cayenne pepper.  The rectangle is folded over, rolled back to its original size and once again brushed with egg white and sprinkled with cheese and pepper.  It's chilled in the fridge for 10 minutes, before being cut into strips and twisted into straws.  Finally, the straws are baked for 10-15 minutes, until puffed and golden.

My straws weren't the prettiest, to be honest.  I'm not sure if the pastry got a bit warm, but the straws kept breaking as I was twisting them.  However, they tasted good and Jon was delighted.  He's asked for "more, soon!", so perhaps I'll have a play and see if I can make them look better.

A word here on puff pastry... I've always said I'd never bother to make my own, since I heard Jamie Oliver say that 

"if you've got time to make puff pastry, you've got too much time on your hands!"

I've just been reading Mary Berry's autobiography,  and she also says she never makes her own puff pastry (or filo).  I've never heard Rachel say that - this recipe calls for 'good quality bought or homemade puff pastry'.  In this case I used ready made pastry (Does Jus-Rol count as good quality? Not sure!)  I do plan to make puff pastry from scratch, at least once during this challenge.  However, I think that can wait a while, probably until my baby is a bit bigger and less dependant.  Then I can get Daddy to babysit for a few hours while I have a play!