2014 Cooking Club Week 48: Puff Pastry Straws

These are quick and delicious pastry straws, perfect as finger food if you have people round for a few drinks over Christmas. They are ideal in that they can be made in advance and kept in the fridge overnight or frozen until ready to bake.

Ingredients: 320g Puff pastry
100g Grated cheese
English Mustard
Slices Prosciutto/Pancetta
An egg for glazing





I use ready rolled puff pastry for these as it comes in the perfect shape (rectangle) although I do roll it a little longer and wider so the pastry is quite thin.

Spread the entire rectangle of pastry with mustard. I use a lot here as it mellows during cooking and isn’t quite as potent.

Sprinkle the grated cheese on the pastry half closest to you.

Place skinny strips of Prosciutto side by side on top of the cheese. 1/3 or ½ a slice is plenty. I should have rolled the pastry a little wider here and would have gotten more strips out of the pastry sheet.





Fold the top half down over the lower half enclosing the filling. Give it a little roll with a rolling pin to secure the filling.

Using a pizza slice or knife, cut into strips (it helps to put little nicks along the bottom edge of the pastry in between each slice of prosciutto to give you an indication where to cut).



Twist each strip a few times and place on a baking tray lined with parchment.

At this stage you can fridge or freeze the pastry straws. Cover well with cling film if you are going to freeze them.



Preheat your oven to 200C. Brush the pastry straws with beaten egg just before putting them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until puffed up and golden brown. If cooking from frozen they would need about 5 minutes more, just keep an eye on them.

Enjoy!

P.S. The variations to this recipe are endless but a few of my other favourites are pesto and grated mozzarella or cranberry sauce and blue cheese. You can also make Christmas mince straws as an alternative to serving mince pies!