Please share your best cheese straws recipe

[Dancergirl]

My 8 year old dd loves to bake and we tried cheese straws twice recently. They came out ok in the end but both times we had problems handling the pastry as it was so short it wouldn't come together into a ball. I added a bit of water but wondering if we're doing something wrong.

I used a combination of River Cottage Family cookbook recipe (which I hate because their measurements are in cupfuls) and an online recipe.

Would you consider cheesy breadsticks? Nothing ever goes wrong with this one.

I use ready made puff pastry, in a block, not ready rolled. Roll out the pastry til it's quite thin, spread with a little bit of marmite diluted in hot water, sprinkle finely grated cheese on one half then fold the pastry over so it's like a cheese sandwich. Use the rolling pin to flatten it out a bit more then cut into strips. Twist each strip into a corkscrew shape then put on baking tray. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Very quick, easy and yummy

Sounds good owains The only thing is though, dd is really good at making pastry and I want to encourage that. Last time we combined the butter and flour in the first stage and I left the room for a few minutes and told her to start rubbing in. When I came back in - breadcrumbs! It's just the next stage we have problems with, getting it into a ball.