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.