Homemade Breadsticks – Crunchy Italian Breadsticks

The Great British Bake Off Bakealong is back for another round of fun baking challenges hosted by Laura from Little House Big Alaska. I didn’t participate in the first week but when I saw that the second week called for breadsticks I was excited. I hadn’t made them in quite some time. The challenge wasn’t just breadsticks but crisp, crunchy homemade breadsticks like grissini.

Homemade Breadsticks

Makes about 20 – I adapted this recipe from Secrets of a Jewish Baker

• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 package yeast (1 heaping tsp)
• 1 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Seasonings for the Breadsticks

• coarse salt
• garlic granules
• herbes de Provence

• In a bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer add the water and sprinkle the yeast. Let stand for a few minutes to soften.
• Add the sugar, oil, 2 1/2 cups of the flour and salt.
• Stir or mix with the paddle until the dough comes away from the bowl adding more flour 1/4 cup at a time as needed.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic or put on the dough hook and knead for 10 minutes. Dough should be soft but not sticky.
• Place dough into an oiled bowl, turn and let rise until doubled in volume – an hour to an hour and a half
• Preheat oven to 400

• Punch down down and shape into a rectangle. Let rest for 10 minutes.

• Roll out into a large rectangle about 1/4″ thick

• Cut into strips making sure they are at least 12″ long. (a pizza cutter works well for cutting the dough)
• If you are seasoning sprinkle on the salt, garlic granules or herbes de Provence and lightly press into the dough strips.
• Twist from each end and place on baking sheets.
• Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. You will need to turn the breadsticks over halfway through baking and switch racks if you are using two baking sheets.

• Cool on a wire rack.

How Were the Homemade Breadsticks?

They were quite yummy. I now had these delicious homemade breadsticks and had to decide what to serve with them. I saw some people in the Bakealong group mentioning lasagna or stew but I thought soup. But what kind did I want to make. I thought about what I had in the house and I finally decided upon Cream of Broccoli Soup.

I usually make it with a combination of broccoli and cauliflower but when I went into the freezer I happened upon packages of just broccoli so that is what I used! The crunchy breadsticks were a perfect accompaniment to the thick soup.