Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks are a flaky and addictive movie night snack idea! Packed full of melted cheese and your favorite spices, these crunchy sticks will be your new favorite snack indulgence.
An Easy Movie Night Snack Idea
When I chat with my mom friends about movie night snacks, it seems everyone’s go-to snacks all revolve around popcorn. Plain popcorn, popcorn topped with sweet or savory spices, popcorn snack mixes. You get the idea – for movie night, popcorn is king.
Not here my friends. In my house, Puff Pastry Cheese sticks are a top pick for movie night snack. Yes, they rank even higher than popcorn or candy – believe it or not! Now, my kids aren’t some sort of foodie kid anomaly. Nope, they just like what they like.
These Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks are savory, cheesy, flaky, and once dipped in your favorite sauce, there’s no turning back. You’ll be hooked!
What is Puff Pastry?
Puff pastry is pure buttery, light and flaky goodness. If you haven’t tried it, you must!
Now, of course, that isn’t the technical description. If you’re looking for that – here goes! Puff pastry is made of only 4 ingredients – butter, water, flour, and salt. The dough is rolled out, then dabbed with butter, and then folded over and over again to create hundreds of buttery layers. In the oven, the water evaporates and creates air bubbles within the dough that gives the puff pastry it’s signature airy and flaky texture.
It can be difficult and time consuming to make from scratch, so I typically use frozen puff pastry dough in my recipes. No shame in my game.
Recipe Ingredients
The ingredients list on this recipe is super slim. If you’ve got puff pastry, you’ve likely got everything else you need already!
Here’s what you’ll need
- puff pastry dough
- olive oil
- salt and fresh ground pepper
- smoked or sweet paprika
- shredded cheddar cheese
- FRESH grated Parmesan cheese
How to Make Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks
Prep: Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Season: Set the puff pastry dough onto a lightly floured work surface to thaw. Brush the top of the puff pastry with olive oil. Season the puff pastry with salt, pepper, and paprika. Sprinkle the top of the pastry with the cheeses and press down on the cheeses to adhere to the dough.
Cut: Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 10 to 12 long strips, about 1-inch wide.
Twist: Pick up a strip of dough, place it seasoned-side-down on your work surface; hold one end with one hand, and the other end with your other hand, and twist from both ends about 8 times.
Bake: Transfer each twisted strip of dough to the previously prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Then, flip them over and continue to bake for 5 to 8 more minutes or until they’re browned and crisp.
Serve: Remove the cheese sticks from the oven and serve.
Tips for the Best Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks
I love these puff pastry cheese sticks just as they are, but you can use the tips below to make some modifications your family may prefer.
- You can use different dried herbs, spices and seasonings for a new flavor. Hot take – try cinnamon and sugar for a dessert variation!
- Swap out the cheeses. Think, blue cheese, goat cheese, or pepper jack instead!
- If you roll your strips tighter and longer, they will bake up crispier and hold their shape.
- If you roll your strips wider they will be more bread-like and not as crispy.
How to Serve Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks
These Puff Pastry cheese sticks are great with your favorite dip or sauce. Obviously, a classic marinara will be great for dipping. If you’re feeling a bit fancy, dip them in a ranch dip or Buffalo chicken dip.
They are also great on the side of any meal in place of a bread stick. If the dish has a yummy sauce, use these cheese sticks to sop it up!
How to Store and Reheat
Now, this is definitely one of those recipes that we very rarely have leftovers. If, by some crazy chance, one of them manages to go uneaten – I’ll usually gobble it up in the kitchen myself. Shhhhh, don’t tell.
If you do end up with leftover Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks, you can store your cheese sticks in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3-5 days. They will get more dry and crisp as they sit.
I suggest reheating these Puff Pastry Cheese sticks in the oven only to avoid sogginess.
Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks
Ingredients
- 1 frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
- ¼ tsp smoked or sweet paprika, to taste
- ¼ cup finely shredded cheddar cheese, (I like to use a blend of white and yellow cheddar)
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400˚F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Set puff pastry dough onto a lightly floured work surface to thaw.
- Brush top of puff pastry with olive oil.
- Season puff pastry with salt, pepper, and paprika.
- Sprinkle top of pastry with cheeses and press down on the cheeses to adhere to the dough.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 10 to 12 long strips, about 1-inch wide.
- Pick up a strip of dough, place it seasoned-side-down on your work surface; hold one end with one hand, and the other end with your other hand, and twist from both ends about 8 times.
- Transfer each twisted strip of dough to previously prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes; flip over and continue to bake for 5 to 8 more minutes, or until browned and crisp.
- Remove from oven and serve.
19 Comments
Amanda
Jun 18, 2020 at 12:08 amThese are so tasty and easy to make I recommend them to everyone!
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 18, 2020 at 5:26 pmThank you so much, Amanda! I’m very glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Catalina
Jun 18, 2020 at 6:48 amOh yes! My kid will go crazy over these cheese sticks. Yummy!
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 18, 2020 at 5:24 pmI hope they enjoy these!! Thank YOU! 🙂
Toni
Jun 18, 2020 at 12:00 pmThis is so good! My kids enjoyed this snack!
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 18, 2020 at 5:23 pmI’m very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Sara Welch
Jun 18, 2020 at 6:18 pmThis is my kind of snack! Looking forward to making these for an afternoon treat later today; looks too good to pass up!
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 22, 2020 at 7:53 pmI hope you enjoy them! Thank YOU! 🙂
Kerri
Jun 19, 2020 at 2:34 amWell, these look like an awesome appetizer!
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 22, 2020 at 7:52 pmThank you so much! 🙂
Jessica
Jun 19, 2020 at 2:35 amOne of my girls would be obsessed with these!!
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 22, 2020 at 7:52 pmI hope you enjoy them! Thank YOU! 🙂
Suzy
Jun 19, 2020 at 9:42 pmPuff pastry is so easy to use and we love it! Making them into cheese sticks is such a great idea!
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 22, 2020 at 7:51 pmI hope you enjoy it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Jacque Hastert
Jun 29, 2020 at 7:56 pmThee sound like the perfect little snack! It would be hard to resist these and put them down. I can’t wait to bake these soon.
Katerina Petrovska
Jun 30, 2020 at 8:12 pmI hope you enjoy it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Leslie H.
Jan 22, 2022 at 12:40 amThank you, this is exactly the recipe I was looking for to go with a wine society event. I will be using locally sourced olive oil infused with sundried tomato and garlic with the parmesan. Never made anything like this so cross your fingers but should be perfect with the charcuterie and the wine.
Sheetal Kapil Bhasin
Feb 27, 2022 at 6:32 pmSo quick n easy
Katerina Petrovska
Feb 28, 2022 at 8:47 amThank YOU! I hope you’ll enjoy it! 🙂