Homemade Cheese Crackers Rule!

If you're a Cook'n Club reader (our weekly newsletter ), you might remember an article I (Alice) did a few weeks ago regarding the fun of making homemade crackers. I talked about how easy this is, how tasty they are, and how much better the quality is (as compared to store-bought).

WOW! Did this article generate a lot of response. Come to find out, I'm not the only one out there that's had some fun with this idea. One reader emailed me asking if I had a recipe for something she enjoyed as a child--cheese straws. I put the question to our readers, and we received some good recipes. Here are three you might want to try:

Betty Webb shared a recipe her mother made when she was a little girl and says her mother made it before that (it is 100+ years old).
CHEESE STRAWS

1 grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1 C butter
1/4 tsp salt
2 C flour
Mix; roll thin and cut in strips. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 8-10 min.

Jeanne Mason sent us a recipe for cheese straws she found in her Wear-Ever Cookie Press book:
1 lb grated sharp cheese
1/4 lb butter
1 egg
1 Tbsp cold water
1 3/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika
Cream butter and cheese until soft. Add egg and water. Beat well. Sift flour, salt, cayenne and paprika together. Add in 3 additions, beating well after each addition. Chill dough 10 min. Pack into Wear-Ever Cookie gun fitted with the saw-toothed disk. [Obviously we can make this without a Wear-Ever Cookie gun--any cake decorating tube would work as long as the tip is large enough. OR, we could just use a plastic baggie with the corner snipped off.] Make long strips on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 min. or until golden. Cut in 3-inch lengths while still warm. Yield: 8 dozen 3-inch lengths (straws).

Finally, Dorothy shared a supper-easy old Tupperware recipe she'd saved.

Cheese Twists

1 15 oz pkg. refrigerated unbaked pie crust
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
Roll out pie crust to a 12-inch square. Roll dough to a 12x10-inch rectangle. Brush with 1 Tbsp of the melted butter and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese. Cut dough crosswise into 12 1-inch strips. Fold each strip in half length-wise and pinch edges together, twist. Place twists about 1 inch apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 min., or until golden. Cool on baking sheets. Carefully transfer twists to a sealed container. Makes 24.

I was so jazzed that Betty, Jeanne, and Dorothy took the time to share these great recipes and want to publicly thank them. And I hope you'll give them a try and let me know what you think. Meanwhile, do YOU have a fun recipe, or a food memory you'd like to share? Let me know what's on your mind--and thanks for stopping by!