Here's our family recipe for Southern cheese straws (or ribbons). It makes over a gallon.
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound Cracker Barrel extra sharp chedder, grated fine ( I use an old Cuisinart food processor with the optional fine shredding disk)
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick melted butter
Pre-heat the oven to 325 F. I have double ovens, and that is the only way that I can make this recipe without having to halve the baking.
Sift the flour twice with the cayenne pepper and the salt.
Place the grated cheese in a LARGE bowl. Pour the hot melted butter over it. Then dump the flour mixture in and work with your hands until the dough is about the consistency of Play-Doh. Let it rest for maybe half an hour.
I use at least four half sheet baking pans for this, and sometimes an extra cookie sheet or two.
Press out the dough with a cookie press through the ribbon die. At the end of the pressing, there will be a bit left in the press, which I make into "the cookie", which is hand pressed until the dough is almost transparent.
Cut the ribbons before baking.
Now comes the hard part. You have to vulture the cheese straws to make absolutely sure they do not brown. If they brown they will be bitter. You want to see that the dough has set, begun to lighten, and that the very tips of the edges are beginning to brown. I can't give fixed time because my ovens may not cook like yours. But start looking after ten minutes, and then look often.
When you think they have reached the above stage, take each sheet out, remove the cheese straws with a flat spatula, and put them on cooling racks-multiple cooling racks. They will be very fragile, so be careful.
This is the common local cheese straw recipe with one difference--the butter is melted. This makes the dough more elastic and easier to press. And it will still exhaust you. My hands aren't strong enough now to use my grandmother's Mirro press, so I have two options: a press that works like a caulking gun, and a vintage Super Shooter electric press. In my opinion, the Super Shooter ribbons aren't quite as fragile.
These make very good Christmas presents--at least down here.
