Puff pastry cheese twists - the most heavenly snack delight

Plate of freshly baked cheese twists

A favorite snack in many countries I think. The cheese stick. Being our favorite snack as well, we surely tried a many of ready made sticks and such that you can buy from the bakery. They are all not bad and we enjoy eating them while an interesting movie is on TV. But to be honest, making your own cheese twists with your own self made puff pastry, nothing can top that. It's actually no that difficult, but to make your own puff pastry takes a looooooooooong time. So be prepared to spend a few hours between the kitchen back and forth. But honestly, it's worth it. Best is to make loads of it so it's worth the time you spend making it because one thing is for sure, they won't last long, at least not in our household. So here goes the recipe:


Ingredients:

• 500 g of puff pastry
• 200 g grated Emmental or Gruyere cheese
• 2 table spoons of cumin seeds
• 2 pinches of salt
• 1 egg

Cheese Twists

Now after the last tour and resting for 20 minutes, take the dough out and roll it out in a one centimeter thick dough plate. Now break the egg and beat the egg white and egg yolk together. Grate the cheese and mix the grated cheese with the cumin seeds the two pinches of salt. Spread half of the egg over the dough plate, then sprinkle half of the cheese mix over the dough. 

Puff pastry dough with the egg wash and the cheese cumin mixture

Then fold the dough together one time to half the dough. Roll it out again to the same size it was before. Add the rest of the egg wash over the surface of the dough and sprinkle the rest of the cheese mix over it. Press it down a bit so it will stick to the dough.
Now cut 3 - 5 cm thick strips of cheese sticks from the dough, twist them up and place them on a prepared baking tray that has been well buttered (I am using my permanent baking paper instead that is non sticking).

Freshly twisted cheese sticks laid out on the baking paper

Now you have to let the cheese sticks rest in a cool place for another 20 minutes. This is very important or the twists will shrink in the oven when you bake them. In the meantime preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
After the sticks rested the 20 minutes, place the baking tray with the cheese sticks in the medium position in the oven for about 10 - 20 minutes. Don't go for any adjusted timing. Just check when they are getting golden brown on top, you got a winner there.  I actually took them off one by one so that whenever one was golden brown and looked nice and crispy.
That's it. Ready you are for the evening snack pleasure. The only danger here is that they won't last very long though...

Golden brown crispy cheese twist freshly baked from the oven