Cheese Straws

Name: Cheese Straws
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients: Plain flour; Unsalted butter; Very mature cheddar; Salt; Black pepper

239 kcal a serving, against 296 for the traditional version. That is 57 kcal off, or 19%, with 8.8g of protein. Serves 8. 50 minutes.

What the traditional version is

The standard cheese straw involves 200g plain flour, 150g mature cheddar, and 150g unsalted butter. You rub the butter into the flour, work in the cheese, then bring it all together into a rich, short dough. Slice, bake, and you end up with something flaky, salty, and outrageously rich - perfect with a drink and immediately regrettable if you care about your arteries.

What changed, and what each change costs

Butter dropped from 150g to 60g, no low-fat spreads

Dropping the butter cuts a wallop of fat and calories, but any lower and the pastry turns from melt-in-the-mouth to edible MDF. I've tried every lower-fat margarine on the shelf and got nothing but heartbreak. Water-logged spreads just steam out and glue the flour together by force, so you end up gnawing, not nibbling. If you want a proper straw and not a breadstick, a bit of butter is non-negotiable.

What it costs you. Crumb is drier, and the melt suffers. You don't get the same crisp-flake explosion - it's closer to a cheese biscuit than a classic straw, but it still feels like a party nibble. I've said it once: it isn't velvet, it's respectable.

Cheese up from 150g to 200g to keep taste

Since the flavour from the butter's gone, something has to carry the weight. More cheese gives you a punchier hit and helps the texture hold together.

What it costs you. More cheese isn't a hardship unless you're the one doing the grating. You'll need a really sharp cheddar - supermarket mild is a waste of time here.

Black pepper increased for extra punch

You don't get the same richness from butter, so a bit more pepper gives you a kick in the right direction.

What it costs you. Stronger taste. If you don't like pepper, dial it down - but honestly, you'd be missing the point.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Plain flour
Unsalted butter
Very mature cheddar
Salt
Black pepper

How it starts

Weigh the flour, salt, and pepper into a large bowl.
Grate the cheese finely and stir it through the flour mixture until well distributed.
Squeeze the dough together with your hands.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Southern.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	296	239
Protein	7.4g	8.8g
Fat	21.1g	13.9g
Saturated fat	13.1g	8.6g
Carbohydrate	19.4g	19.6g
Protein per 100 kcal	2.5g	3.7g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Southern prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. gluten, milk.

The method is in the book

This is about as far as you can cut the butter before you're just eating cheese cookies. They're crisp, properly cheesy, and go very well with a drink, but nobody's going to mistake them for the full-fat party classic unless you ply them with gin first. The upside: you can eat a couple and not immediately need a lie down. If you want proper cheese straws, make the real ones and plan a nap.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Southern, along with 50 more. Buy the paperback