Breadsticks

It has been almost exactly 3 years since I lasted did a bread blog entry. We are mid lockdown, and flour is finally available again, and this morning I just felt the old enthusiasm for trying something new.

Now I find myself in a fortunate position this lockdown to have a brewer husband so I have an abundance of yeast, which seems to be one thing people are still struggling to get hold of. Now would be the ideal time to grow a starter, but for now that can be something for another week.

So I revisited a couple of old recipes from here, and tried a couple of new ones too. Here is the first, some big, fat salt and pepper breadsticks from the bbc good food site.

450g/1lb strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 x 7g/⅛oz sachet fast-action dried yeast
1½ tsp salt
250–275ml/9-10fl oz warm water
vegetable oil or spray oil, for oiling
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sea salt
2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

Dust two large baking trays with flour.
Put the flour, yeast and the salt into a large bowl and add enough of the water to make a soft but not sticky dough. Knead well for 10 minutes by hand on a lightly floured work surface or for five minutes if using an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.
Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions, each weighing about 60g/2½oz. Roll the portions into balls, then place each ball on a floured surface and roll into a long sausage shape about 25cmx2cm/10inx1in. (For the best visual results make the sausage shape an even thickness.)
I like to shape half of them into twists. Run a knife down the centre to split the dough, leaving a bit at one end uncut. Braid or plait the two halves over each other to give a twisted effect.
Place the breadsticks on the prepared baking trays, spacing them 4cm/1½in apart. Cover the breadsticks loosely with oiled clingfilm, making sure it is airtight. Leave in warm place for 30 minutes, or until the breadsticks have almost doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
Remove the clingfilm and brush each breadstick with the extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle half of the breadsticks with the sea salt and the remainder with the freshly ground black pepper. Bake on the top third of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the breadsticks are lightly golden-brown and feel firm to the touch. Remove the breadsticks from the oven and leave to cool on the baking trays.

I’m not entirely sure to be honest if my brewers yeast is classed as easy blend or not (it looks like it; it’s fine grains as opposed to the little round beads), but just to be safe I activate it in the water first, being careful to use the lesser amount of water for this so I can still add more after.

It’s a very thick and stretchy dough, not the easiest to shape. I found making a small sausage and then stretching it out was the easiest. My twists had a tendency to unravel themselves though so the straight ones ended up looking neater.

There was a slight chew to this rather than a dry snap. Perhaps being thinner would be better? I don’t think they could have been baked much longer. But then again, a little bit of chewy crust is no bad thing either.