Another gluten free success

I’d never cooked with gluten-free flour at all until someone joined my writing group who is coeliac; I bought some gluten-free cookies and biscuits, and to be frank, they were terrible! Like eating sawdust! I looked up some recipes, bought some gf flour and started baking… and I have to say that everything I tried has been very well received, eaten and enjoyed!

I fancied a savoury something today and looked up a recipe for cheese straws, which I adapted and changed a bit, and here it is, my version of cheese straws, gluten-free:

• 4 oz gluten-free self-raising flour (if you want them harder use plain flour)
• 1 pinch chilli powder
• 2 oz butter
• 2 eggs beaten
• 3 oz finely grated cheese – I used a mixture of cheddar and provolone, but you could use whatever you like, fancy, have in the kitchen
• salt and pepper
• a little milk if necessary

1. rub the butter, flour, chilli,, salt and pepper together until they look like breadcrumbs.
2. add 2 oz of  cheese.
3. add as much egg as you need to make a soft dough.
4.  roll out in a rectangle to about ¼ inch or less thick, use  the side of a knife to get th edges nice and straight
5. mix the remaining cheese with the remaining egg – add a little milk if it’s too stiff and dry
6. smear, spread, put the cheesy mixture all over the  pastry, right to the edge
7. cut the pastry into narrow strips (mine were about ¼ inch wide)
8. they are extremely fragile, so use a palate knife to lay them on a greased grease-proof paper sheet on a baking tray. Mine were a little too close together so ended up conjoined but it was very easy to turn them over when cooled and recut them
9. bake for 12 or so minutes at 220°C, 425°F, gas mark 7 – i checked them from about 10 mins on to make sure they didn’t catch and burn