Cheese Sticks to Start Me on My Journey

Many Hungarian folk tales start with the oldest son setting out for a big journey, to save a princess or defeat the enemy, kill a dragon, mostly resulting in a kind of a coming of age story. On his journey, the son always takes a bag with him ("tarisznya") carrying the most necessary items. One thing that can never be missing from his bag is the fresh-baked Hungarian pastry, "pogácsa", which is prepared by the mother in the ash of their oven.

My symbolic, fresh-baked "pogácsa" for this blog are these wonderful cheese sticks, to start me on my journey writing this blog. We have been baking these sticks since I was a little girl, serving them at parties, family dinners, appetizers... and they have always been soooo popular with everyone! The delicate balance of the cheese, caraway seeds and the light pastry makes the temptation to eat really hard to resist! Just one more -and more - and more - and more... :-)


You can personalize the cheese sticks by using different types of cheese, or even mixing them! Any type of cheddar, Monterrey Jack, smoked cheeses work really well - let your imagination go. I used smoked edam cheese for the sticks you can see in the pictures.

So go ahead and bake them, they will disappear really quickly :-)

Ingredients:

- 250 g butter (diced)
- 250 g all purpose flour
- 250 g cottage cheese or ricotta
- 150 g grated cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt

For the top:

- 50 g grated cheese
- 1 egg
- caraway seeds

Combine the butter, flour, cottage cheese (ricotta), grated cheese, egg and salt in a big bowl and work it with your hands (or your food processor) until the dough is firm and set. I love using my hands because I can experience, not only see how the dough is created.

Chill for at least 1 hour.

Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, about 6-8 mms thick. Brush with the egg, sprinkle generously with the caraway seeds and spread grated cheese all over. With a pizza cutter or just a simple sharp knife cut stripes (first vertical, then horizontal) of your own preference (bigger, smaller...). Place the stripes on a non-stick baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 180 °C (356 F), or until the cheese is nice golden brown on the top.


These cheese sticks store extremely well because the cottage cheese (ricotta) gives an extra moist to the texture.