Easy Cheesey Snacks

This super-simple recipe was inspired by the fact that I ran out of packaged lunch box snacks to put in my boys' lunch boxes today and couldn't quite muster the courage required to brave the supermarket. Cheese straws; much maligned, much forgotten, but such a quick, easy snack that's delicious. You can make them a bit more posh by using different cheeses, as I've done here, or keep them simple with reliable cheddar or Colby (for those who like their cheese creamy but essentially flavourless).

Cheese Straws
Ingredients

• 2 sheets ready-made frozen puff pastry (you could go to the trouble of making your own, but really, why bother when there are great quality puff pastries available?)
• Red Leicester cheese
• Parmesan cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 200C.

Slice very finely or grate cheese over pastry sheet (one cheese on one pastry sheet).

Press the cheese into the pastry sheet. The pastry should have thawed sufficiently in the time it took you to grate/shred the cheese for you to press the cheese firmly into it.

Cut the pastry into long, thin strips (straws). Yes, I do this after I put the cheese on top and it works well.

Line a biscuit tin or flat baking sheet with baking paper. Arrange the straws on the tin with 2 - 5 cm between straws to allow for expansion.

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes (mine took 13 minutes). Allow to cool completely on baking tin out of oven. Store in an airtight container.

A few final notes:

• Remember that firmer cheeses will work better in this recipe. The soft cheeses melt too quickly and tend to run all over the place causing a mess! 
• You can dress these straws up by sprinkling herbs (rosemary chopped up very fine works well, as does sage) or paprika for more adult tastes. 
• If you're using a blue cheese, go for the firm blue cheeses rather than the blue castello.