Puff pastry cheese straws with butternut squash

Butternut squash, cheese and puff pastry prove that they’re a match made in heaven in this wonderful puff pastry cheese straws recipe. Easy to make, vegetarian friendly and a great way of adding a portion of hidden veg to a savoury snack.

I’m proud to say that this recipe for butternut squash cheese straws won the Readers’ Recipe Swap for Kids’ Parties in the Guardian on 6 August 2016 and was featured again in a piece about getting kids to eat more veg in April 2017.

Can you make cheese straws out of puff pastry?

Yes you can make delicious cheese straws by using puff pastry. In fact puff pastry cheese straws are one of the easiest things out there to make.

Simply roll out your pastry – or just unroll it if you’ve bought ready rolled – grate cheese over it, roll again, cut into strips, twist and bake. Hey presto – you have a delicious, moreish, if not particularly healthy snack.

But what if you add a vegetable into the mix?

Are they still as easy to make? Do they still work? Are they still tasty, moreish and loved by kids?

The answer to all of these questions is yes!

Butternut squash and cheese are a match made in heaven

Butternut squash macaroni cheese is one of our regular meals these days. Miss R won’t eat it so it’s not the perfect family meal for us. However, seeing as R LOVES it and it’s pretty hard to get him to eat any vegetables, I make sure we have it at least once a fortnight.

So when I was thinking about which vegetable might work in a cheese straw, butternut squash seemed like the obvious choice. 

And it turns out that butternut squash and puff pastry are a match made in heaven too.

The first time I made it I put in far too much pureéd squash and they kind of exploded in a cheesy mess in the oven – tasty but not too photogenic. So I started again and this time the butternut squash cheese straws have turned out perfectly. 

More vegetarian puff pastry recipes:

Really easy pizza pinwheels

Beetroot, walnut and goat’s cheese palmiers

Spinach pesto palmiers

Pesto and cheese puff pastry twists

How to make butternut squash puff pastry cheese straws:

NB: this recipe was updated in May 2019. In the original recipe after spreading the butternut squash and cheese over the pastry I folded it in half and re-rolled it, before cutting into strips. I have since decided that the new method below is easier.

The quantities are the same so if you have made these before and prefer the original method by all means do it that way.

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Puff pastry cheese straws with butternut squash

These butternut squash puff pastry cheese straws are easy to make and are a great way of adding a portion of hidden veg to a savoury snack.

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword puff pastry cheese straws

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Total Time 28 minutes

Servings 12

Author Mandy Mazliah

Ingredients

• 320 g sheet of ready rolled puff pastry sheet
• 100 g pureéd butternut squash - either steam it or roast it then blend. You could probably even use a jar of baby food!
• 100 g grated cheddar cheese

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (fan)/220°C/gas mark 7. Unroll the 320g pastry sheet. Spread 100g puréed butternut squash evenly over the top, leaving a little space around the edges, then sprinkle two-thirds of the cheese (65g) over the top.

2. Cut your pastry into thin strips, measuring about 1cm wide. Carefully twist a few times, pushing any cheese that falls out back in. Place on a non-stick baking tray. 

3. Scatter the remaining cheese (35g) over the top and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Best served warm from the oven but fine the next day too if stored in an airtight container.
   

If you like this you might like this butternut squash cake.

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