DAHLONEGA — During his culinary career, Stone Mountain native and now retired chef Tenney Flynn built a reputation as a seafood authority.
The graduate of the Culinary Institute of America broke down fish at Atlanta Fish Market during his seven-year tenure with the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group in the late 1980s and early 1990s. When he went on to direct culinary operations for Ruth’s Chris Steak House in New Orleans, fish and seafood were as much a part of his work lexicon as meat. And, when he opened GW Fins in 2001 with business partner Gary Wollerman, Flynn championed the use of sustainable, underutilized and invasive species. He served those at his New Orleans restaurant and encouraged home cooks to do the same in “The Deep End of Flavor” (Gibbs Smith), a 2019 cookbook that he authored with the help of former AJC food editor Susan Puckett.
Credit: undefined
Credit: undefined
What most people don’t know is that New Orleans’ premier seafood chef is also a pro with pastry. As the daytime sous chef at Atlanta Fish Market, he was responsible for making a standard and a special dessert every day. As corporate chef for Ruth’s Chris, “Whatever new desserts we came up with, I did those.” And when he opened GW Fins, Flynn not only butchered fish every morning but he also worked up all the pastry.
***
On a rainy day in late September, Flynn stood in a warm kitchen at his brother’s home in Dahlonega. On the table were all the ingredients needed to make Mini Apple Pies with Cheese Straw Crust, a clever dessert that combines the all-American apple pie with one of the South’s beloved snacks.
Credit: Aaliyah Man
Credit: Aaliyah Man
The original version isn’t the one that debuted on the opening menu at GW Fins and is published in “The Deep End of Flavor.” Initially, Flynn used cheese straws as a simple garnish atop the pie. He credits Wollerman for suggesting using cheese straw dough as the top crust of the pie, where it plays a more prominent role and accentuates the delicious pairing of apples and cheese.
The refashioned dessert quickly became a customer favorite.
“If I was a server, I could sell that to every table,” Flynn said.
Fellow chefs have given it the seal of approval, too. One of Flynn’s favorite memories of this dish was watching French chef Jacques Pepin enjoy a bite-size version during a fundraiser to support Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
Flynn doesn’t know the source of his cheese straw dough recipe, which, apart from a bit of Parmesan cheese, is a standard prescription that includes butter, grated cheddar cheese, flour, salt and cayenne pepper. “Like a lot of Southern recipes, they were written 200 years ago,” he said.
Cheese straws do have a long history in the region, but the origin has been debated. Some have claimed that the snacks hail from England, an iteration of British biscuits. Others have pointed to roots in Italy, France and even Spain.
The argument for its birthplace in the American South is that these crispy crackers were a way to preserve cheese in the region’s hot, humid climate. There are accounts of cheese straws served prior to the Civil War along the Carolina coast. And a recipe for cheese straws is included in the 1887 publication of “The White House Cookbook.”
Plenty of Southern families have passed down their version of a definitive cheese straw recipe through generations (and you’d be hard pressed to tell ‘em theirs isn’t the best).
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
My 1921 edition of the “Atlanta Woman’s Club Cook Book” offers two cheese straw recipes. The one submitted by Mrs. Lela C. McKinney calls for 1 pound of grated cheese, 1 cup mixed butter and lard, a dash of salt and red pepper and “flour enough to make a stiff dough.” The other, from Mrs. C. R. Hardy, offers a spicy, small-batch option that throws an egg yolk into the mix.
It seems that by the 1920s, cheese straws weren’t just a Southern staple; they were adopted into mainstream American cookery. My Iowa-born grandmother’s 1925 edition of “School and Home Cooking” by Carlotta C. Greer of Cleveland, Ohio and published by Allyn and Bacon on a press in Norwood, Massachusetts, includes a recipe for cheese straws, proposing that the home cook serve the crispy sticks as an accompaniment to the cold-weather favorite tomato soup.
By the 1930s, companies jumped on the cheese straw bandwagon to pedal their own products. A 1936 cookbook from the test kitchen of Wisconsin-based aluminum goods manufacturing company VIKO offers a recipe for cheese straws fried in a VIKO aluminum French fryer. The Watkins Cook Book, published that same year and sold for $1, calls for 1 teaspoon of Watkins baking powder and Watkins brand paprika and red pepper.
Heading into the next decade, the 1943 edition of Irma Rombauer’s “Joy of Cooking” holds four recipes in its “Cheese Wafers and Straws, Etc.” section. One version includes a touch of sugar while another sees the cheese sprinkled atop the dough rather than worked into it.
As I browse through cookbooks by Nathalie Dupree, Anne Byrn and Virginia Willis, I am reminded of how many contemporary Southern culinarians have shouted the praises of cheese straws.
Whether served as a porch party, wedding reception, church potluck – or even a hurricane relief snack – no one can deny that cheese straws are a comforting part of the Southern vernacular and as American as apple pie.
Read about other Southern classic dishes and the chefs who are reimagining them at ajc.com/food-and-recipes/southern-classics-reimagined.
Credit: Aaliyah Man
Credit: Aaliyah Man
Mini Apple Pies with Cheese Straw Crust
Flynn said that it can be laborious to make the entire dessert in one day and better left as a two-day process whereby the two doughs for the crust are prepared in advance. “Assembly is not that big of a deal,” he added. Once assembled, the pies can be frozen for up to two months, so you can have them at the ready for a festive holiday meal or when you are craving a personal-sized treat.
Special equipment for this recipe includes a 12-cup (3-inch) standard muffin tin or 10 individual 4-inch tins; 2 biscuit or cookie cutters — one the diameter of the tine and the other slightly larger; a rolling pin; and parchment paper.
For the filling:
1⁄2 cup sugar
1⁄2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons salted butter
6 tablespoons water, divided
1⁄4 cup heavy cream
1 1⁄2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash of kosher salt
3 pounds (9 medium) Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
For the crusts:
Short Dough for two (10‑inch) single crusts
1⁄2 recipe Cheese Straw Dough
Vegetable oil spray
All-purpose flour for rolling
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
To make the filling, place the sugars, butter, and 2 tablespoons water in a medium, heavy-bottom pot over medium heat; cook until the temperature reaches 275 degrees on a candy thermometer.
Stir in the cream, and then add the lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Return to a boil and add the apples. Cook until the apples are just tender, 5 to 10 minutes, then strain the mixture into a medium-size bowl. Return all the juice to the pot, and bring to a boil. Cook over high heat until reduced by half.
Whisk the flour and remaining water together until smooth, and then whisk vigorously into the boiling syrup. Strain again, if needed, to remove any lumps.
Return the apples to the mixture and transfer to a shallow pan to cool. Place in a covered container and refrigerate until ready to use, up to a week.
To assemble, remove the Short Dough and Cheese Straw Dough from the refrigerator and let soften slightly, about 20 minutes. Spray muffin tin with vegetable oil spray.
Lightly flour a clean surface and roll 2 discs of Short Dough to about ¼-inch thickness, giving the dough a turn and dusting underneath with flour as you turn. With a floured cutter slightly wider than the tins (the rim of a glass will also work), cut 6 rounds from each disc of dough. Press the crusts into the tins, overlapping the edge by at least 1⁄2 inch. Fill each crust with the cooled apple filling, mounding it up in the center; refrigerate 2 hours or preferably overnight.
Place 1 disc of Cheese Straw Dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper (or plastic wrap) and roll to 1⁄4-inch thickness. Remove the top sheet of parchment. With a floured cutter the width of the tin, cut 12 rounds of dough, using a knife to cut the parchment or plastic wrap underneath.
Take the pies out of the refrigerator, brush the edges with egg wash, and flip one of the cheese straw rounds over the filling, then peel off the parchment. Fold and roll the edges up over the top crust. Cut 4 slits in the top of each. Refrigerate until ready to bake, or wrap airtight in plastic and freeze for up to 2 months.
If pies are frozen, let thaw in the refrigerator overnight or on the counter for an hour or two. Set a rack on the bottom shelf of the oven and heat to 400 degrees. If using 4-inch individual tins, place them in a large pan.
Place the tin in the hot oven and bake until browned and bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool completely in the pan, about 30 minutes. Carefully run a knife around the edges to loosen the pies and remove the pies from their cups. Serve warm, with ice cream.
Makes 12 (3-inch) pies or 10 (4-inch) pies.
Per 1 (3-inch) pie: 516 calories (percent of calories from fat, 49), 8 grams protein, 59 grams carbohydrates, 25 grams total sugars, 4 grams fiber, 28 grams total fat (15 grams saturated), 73 milligrams cholesterol, 218 milligrams sodium.
For nutritional data, a dash is calculated as 1/8 teaspoon.
Recipes excerpted from “The Deep End of Flavor: Recipes and Stories from New Orleans’ Premier Seafood Chef” by Tenney Flynn with Susan Puckett. Used by permission of Gibbs Smith.
Credit: Aaliyah Man
Credit: Aaliyah Man
Short Dough
“This may seem like an unusually wet dough, but it makes a superior flaky crust,” Flynn writes in the headnote for this recipe. For best results, he suggests working quickly with the dough, dusting the board frequently with flour and giving the crust a turn as you roll it. If the dough becomes too soft or the butter starts to break out of the dough, return it to the refrigerator for a few minutes to chill.
Flynn encourages home cooks to prepare the recipe with lard as written and not use vegetable shortening. “Flavor-wise, I feel strongly about it,” he said. “Eat the animal fat.”
3 cups minus 2 tablespoons soft all purpose flour, plus extra flour for dusting
1⁄4 pound (1⁄2 cup) cold lard
1⁄4 pound (1 stick) cold salted butter, cut in 1⁄4-inch dice
1⁄2 cup ice cold water
Place the measured flour into a large mixing bowl and cut in the lard with a pastry blender or two forks. Or crumble the bits up to make coarse crumbs with your fingers, taking care not to over-handle. When the lard is mixed in, add the butter and incorporate until the small bits are the size of peas. This is a rich mixture and you’ll probably need your pastry blender or forks to blend.
Stir in the ice water. It will appear very wet, but will thicken slightly as the water is absorbed into the flour. Divide this dough into 2 equal parts and roll in flour.
Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours before rolling. Freezes well for two months or longer. Thaw in the refrigerator before using.
Makes enough pastry for 2 (10-inch) single-crust or 1 double-crust pie, 12 (3- or 4-inch) pies or 24 mini (2-inch) pies.
Per 1 (10-inch) single crust: 1,573 calories (percent of calories from fat, 60), 19 grams protein, 137 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram total sugars, 5 grams fiber, 105 grams carbohydrates, 52 grams saturated), 176 milligrams cholesterol, 368 milligrams sodium.
Credit: Aaliyah Man
Credit: Aaliyah Man
Cheese Straw Dough
When making cheese straws as half-dollar sized rounds, Flynn often garnishes each with a pecan half pressed on top prior to baking.
1 1⁄3 cup (5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) salted butter, softened
1⁄2 pound grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 1⁄2 ounces (1⁄2 cup) grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄8 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Place the butter in a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream the butter on medium speed until smooth, and then blend in the cheeses.
Blend in the dry ingredients on low speed until a soft dough is formed. (Since it has almost no liquid to develop gluten, it can be worked more than the Short Dough.) Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill at least 1 hour before using, or freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before using.
To make cheese straws or coins: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Place room-temperature dough in a cookie press fitted with a large star tip and press out onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Break into 2- or 3-inch pieces. Or roll the dough into long ropes about 1 inch in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Slice in 1⁄4 inch-thick pieces, and place on the parchment. If desired, press a pecan half into each. Bake until lightly browned on the bottom, about 20 to 25 minutes. They should be a little soft when removed from the oven and will harden as they cool.
Makes 1 pound dough or 60 to 70 cheese straws or coins.
Per 1 (3-straw or coin) serving, based on 60: 30 calories (percent of calories from fat, 64), 1 gram protein, 2 grams carbohydrates, trace total sugars, trace fiber, 2 grams total fat (1 gram saturated), 7 milligrams cholesterol, 48 milligrams sodium.
Sign up for the AJC Food and Dining Newsletter
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on X and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
