Cheese Stick Cookie (Kaasstengel)

I grew up eating this cheese stick made either by my mom or my grandma. I love it and I took it for granted. Any time I wanted it, I always got it. Sometimes I helped them to make this, but I did not see it as hard work. It was fun. Other time, when they did not have time to make it, we could just buy it somewhere. We could find from the not-so-good quality (using salt instead of good cheese) or the good quality ones.


Last vacation, my children were pampered by the grandparents. They also enjoyed this cheese stick and another type of cookie with pineapple filling. The cheese stick is easier to make. So, when my children were begging me to make the cookies after we were back to the Netherlands, I decided to just make the cheese stick. This one is Indonesian version, because the Netherlands version is very different. It is difficult to explain the different of the texture and taste, but the Dutch version, in most recipes, uses puff pastry sheet, while the Indonesian version uses all-purpose flour.


Make sure that you use an old cheese type and not the young cheese type. It makes the taste different.


Ingredients
300 gram grated old cheese + 100 gram extra for topping
350 gram all-purpose flour
250 gram butter, soft and room temperature
1 tsp salt
5 egg yolk

2 egg yolk for egg wash

Method
1. Beat the butter and egg yolk until it becomes thick (almost) white mixture for a few minutes.
2. Add the flour, salt and cheese in a few steps and knead the dough until everything is well mixed. You can also use hand in this process. It is not as hard as kneading bread. (Warning: do not over mixed. If you do over mixed, the dough will become oily and the result is not crunchy)
3. Roll the dough using a pin roll until the dough reaches a uniform thickness.
4. Cut the rolled dough into sticks and arrange them on the baking pan. (I used baking paper as liner).
5. Brush the cheese stick with the beaten eggs and sprinkle them with the extra grated cheese
6. Heat the oven 170Celcius. Baked the cheese sticks for around 20 - 25 minutes, depends on your oven. I baked two baking pan together, and I changed the position halfway.

Fresh from the oven

8. Take the baking tray out of the oven and let the cheese sticks to cool down.
9. Store the cheese sticks in the air tight container.

Now, you can enjoy it with a cup of warm tea.