Grissini – Italian Bread Sticks

Grissini is another one of the breads that was randomly chosen for the Mellow Bakers group this month.  These Italian Bread Sticks include a good bit of olive oil to provide richness and roasted garlic for exceptional flavor.  They’re also really easy to make!  I liked them; however next time, I’ll add more garlic – a bunch more garlic.

 

Grissini

Slightly adapted from: Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.

Makes: 24 Bread Sticks

Ingredients:

• 4 1/8 cups bread flour
• 1 1/8 cups water
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Method:

I started the process by roasting a head of garlic according to the instructions from King Arthur Flour on how to roast a garlic for the most effective flavor and highest yield.

I increased the yeast in the recipe based on the comments in the Mellow Bakers Forum.  If you want crispier bread sticks, then you might want to reduce the amount of yeast used.

My sons and I prefer our bread sticks to be more bready than crispy so adding the extra yeast helped in this regard.  If you want crispier bread sticks, then the 1/2 teaspoon is probably just fine.

This dough is very easy to manage by hand.  I used my Danish dough whisk instead of a mixer and it worked great.

After mixing all of the ingredients, I transferred the dough to the counter sprinkled with flour and kneaded the dough until it was soft and supple. This dough was really nice to work with. 

Then I transferred the dough to a bowl sprayed with spray oil, covered it with plastic and let it ferment for an hour.

After the dough had doubled in size, I divided it into two pieces and spread each piece into a rectangle.

Then I cut the bread sticks into thin strips using my pizza wheel.

The first batch was plain because I forgot to put the sesame seeds on top.  These bread sticks also ended up a little bit crispier than the second batch.

I remembered to put the sesame seeds on the second batch. And, I didn’t bake these quite as long so they turned out a little fluffier.

I liked both versions but next time, I think I’ll cut them just a little bit wider and bake them so that they’re not crispy.  That and the extra garlic should make for some really delicious bread sticks!

These bread sticks were so easy and didn’t take much time so I’ll definitely be making them again.  They taste really good with homemade marinara sauce.

The Mellow Bakers group was started by Paul at Yumarama. We’re baking breads from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.

Happy Baking!
Cathy