My Favorite Recipes Collection: Cheesy Breadsticks

I had made Tiramisu for my son's Birthday, and as you know the recipe calls for 4 egg yolks (recipe on this blog). So I was left with 4 egg whites. So I started looking for recipes with egg whites in my recipes collection and came across this cheesy bread stick recipe that I had saved from on line from a website called fifteenspatula.com. I thought this would be good time to try it since one of the menu item was home made cream of broccoli soup. So I did and it came out pretty good. These have cheesy and buttery flavor, I put cayenne pepper in it but you can use chopped pickled Jalapenos or totally omit heat by voiding the cayenne pepper or jalapenos. Very easy to make and taste yummy with soups. You can cut the recipe down by half or 1/4 if want to make small batches. Also baking time depends on the thickness of strips if you roll out the dough in 1/8 of an inch it may take only 10-15 min of baking time, mine were little thicker so took a little longer to bake.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (you can use pepper jack cheese)

* 2 cups flour

* 1 teaspoon salt

* 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder (optional)

* 12 tablespoon butter (1 and half stick) cold from fridge and cubed, just like you use when making pie crust or puff pastry)

* 4 egg whites

Method:

* Preheat oven at 425 F (I always preheat the oven 25 more degrees than required baking temp as when you open the door the temp drops down, the baking temp for these sticks is 400 degrees, once I place the baking tray with bread sticks in the oven then I turned the temp to 400).

* Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking sheet.

* Combine shredded cheese, flour, salt and cayenne pepper or chopped Jalapenos (either or none) and mix all the ingredients with your fingers.

* Add cubed butter and work it into flour mixture with your fingertips, working quickly so the butter is not melting.

* Once the butter pieces are broken down, stir in egg white until evenly incorporated.

* The mixture will be crumbly but you will be able to knead the mixture in to a dough ball. (you can use stand up mixture at low speed but be sure the butter is not melted).

* Divide the dough ball in to two equal portions and roll it on flour board with rolling pin, ideally to 1/8 inch thickness but mine was like 1/4 of an inch.

* Cut the rolled dough into long strips with pizza cutter or knife and twist them on to the baking sheet.

* Bake at 400 F for 20-25 min (if thinner strips may be less time) until crisp and light golden brown. You must watch them if you are making them for the first time so they are not burnt. Also do not overcrowd them, I made these in two batches.

* Let them cool slightly and then serve with your favourite soul or just as an appetizer with your favourite dips.