Puff Pastry Cheese Straws

Hello faithful readers! This blog comes to you just from Michelle. Zack worked a rare first shift Sunday, so I had a full day of cooking to myself. My day started with these Puff Pastry Cheese Straws. 

You see, Zack got me the Jacques Pepin book, "New Complete Techniques" as a Christmas gift and I have been pouring over the 725 pages of recipes and techniques for weeks. In true Amateur Foodie fashion, I don't follow recipes very well, but I basically followed this to the letter... aside from making my own puff pastry from scratch (but Pepin does have a recipe for that).

Here's what you need:
1 sheet of pre-packaged puff pastry
1 large egg, beaten
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp Paprika
A bit of flour to sprinkle over the working surface

Here's what you do:
Preheat you oven to 400 degrees. 

Sprinkle your board with as little flour as possible. These are going to be twirled, so you don't want flour getting trapped inside the twirls.

Roll the puff pastry out so that it's about 1/8" thick.

Brush the beaten egg over one side of the puff pastry.

You can combine the Parmesan and paprika ahead of time if you with. Jacques Pepin told me to, but I just didn't want to, so I sprinkled the two separately. 

Rub the Parmesan and paprika into the dough.

Flip over and repeat with egg, Parmesan and paprika.

Cut into strips with a knife or pizza cutter.

Starting at the top, roll the puff pastry toward you at an angle to twist it. This was my first attempt at this, so of course I didn't get the hang of it until the last couple, and by then, I had forgotten to snap a picture.

Place the twisted puff pastry in a cookie sheet over a bit of parchment paper. Press the ends of the pastry into the cookie sheet so that they stick. This will prevent the pastries from shrinking up while they bake.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until nicely browned. Cut into 5" pieces and serve. Or, make ahead of time and keep in a Ziploc bag until you're ready to serve them.

Enjoy!