Pesto-Cheese Straws!

Delicious and flakey pesto cheese straws – the ultimate picnic staple or a tasty snack for the whole family!

Cheese straws

When I think of cheese straws, I think of a melt in your mouth savoury delight of flakey pastries that I had at picnics as a kid or my first go at savoury baking many years ago, not to mention just cheesy goodness… YES PLEASE! What’s not to love!?! If you’re looking for more cheesey savoury bakes then try my cheese and bacon muffins.

I, of course, had to make my own as I love all things cheese so it would be weird if I didn’t. I love how simple these are to make, kids can get involved and you can eat them at any time of day as the perfect snack. These are one of the simplest yet most scrumptious treats you can bake (or buy in a shop, but they’re so much better homemade) and they are so easy to do.

Shop brought vs homemade ingredients 

When it comes to buying all the ingredients ready made, or being adventurous and starting from scratch there is no right answer, sometimes it just depends on the time and effort you have to make it… in this recipe I am using ready made ingredients as this is designed to be a quick bake rather than the waiting time required to make your own puff pastry for example.

You can use shop brought pastry and shop brought pesto if you will find it easier – the great thing about this recipe is you can make it your way… When I do make my own ingredients I have used this Jamie Oliver recipe for the pesto and I use Gordon Ramsay’s method found on BBC Good Food for the homemade puff pastry.

Perfect pesto

Pesto is a wonderful thing and it is SO easy to make your own. I love making my own as I go through so much of it at home. Using simple ingredients like olive oil, parmesan, pine nuts and basil, you get a delicious pesto that you can use as a sauce or a drizzle depending on what your taste buds desire.

I am definitely not the first to combine cheese and pesto but my gosh I won’t be the last. I add my pesto as a base spread to the pastry of my cheese straws as I love the combination. It’s also great on pizza and pasta, and now it is tasty within these cheese straws.

Cheese

I use both cheddar and parmesan within these cheese straws. Cheddar is my favourite – I love a strong mature cheddar as I really want to taste the cheese throughout and the strong flavour can break through the pastry, don’t be afraid to use other cheeses here though, red leicester, smoked maybe even blue cheese!

I add an equal amount of parmesan to the cheese straws to give it a slight cheesey sharpness. If you can’t find a good parmasen you can use pecorino as a hard cheese alternative.  I love these flavours and strong cheese and pesto is a flavour that your friends and family will be asking for time and time again.

Tips & tricks

• Pesto is so easy to make at home, and it makes it so much nicer when you know exactly whats in it!
• You can use simple ingredients such as just pine nuts, basil, and oil – or you can jazz it up a bit and add some parmesan to the pesto! Pesto is one of the easiest things to change up and about as it’s so versatile. I often use this Jamie Oliver recipe.
• You can of course make your own puff pastry – I often use Gordon Ramsay’s method found on BBC Good Food.
• I use these basic baking trays
• I use this baking parchment

Pesto Cheese Straws

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Category: Savoury

Type: Cheese Straws

Keyword: Pesto

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes

3 days days

Total Time: 32 minutes minutes

Servings: 14 straws

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp pesto (more if wanted!)
• 100 g parmesan (grated)
• 100 g mature cheddar cheese (grated)
• 350 g puff pastry

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 220ºc / 200ºc fan and line baking trays with parchment paper.
• If using ready made puff pastry, simply roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin.
• Spread your pesto evenly on to the pastry, this will make it easier to stick all the cheese down too!
• Spread both the grated parmesan and cheddar over your pesto layer.
• You can either cut them into 1cm strips now, or you can fold the pastry over so its half the size, then roll it back out to its original £1 thickness, to then cut into 1cm strips. (This will keep more of the pesto & cheese on the inside - but either way is delicious!)
• Once the pastry has been cut into strips, simply twist all pieces a few times (the more the merrier)!
• Scatter over more cheese and bake for 12 minutes (or until nice and golden).
• Leave to cool before serving, and enjoy!

Notes

• Pesto is so easy to make at home, and it makes it so much nicer when you know exactly whats in it!
• You can use simple ingredients such as just pine nuts, basil, and oil - or you can jazz it up a bit and add some parmesan to the pesto! Pesto is one of the easiest things to change up and about as it's so versatile. I often use this Jamie Oliver recipe.
• You can of course make your own puff pastry - I often use Gordon Ramsay's method found on BBC Good Food.
• I use these basic baking trays
• I use this baking parchment