Crispy Bread Sticks

Italian Grissini / Homemade soup sticks /Breadsticks 

Do you remember, deep-fried croutons and tomato soup? This particular combination has an impression on our physic. I am talking about those 80s kids. If you are one of them, you will relate. Every restaurant visit with the family would begin with croutons and tomato soup. You drop a few into your hot soup and skim them with those big oval-shaped spoons, eating as quickly as possible. Bit soggy, bit crunchy croutons carrying the flavours of the soup and still holding that textural finesse. Golden deep fried dice were everyone’s favourite. It never got wasted on our family table. We never left a single crouton uneaten hahaha What wonderful memories!

Actually, it’s been very long since I had croutons. It’s never served at the places where we dine now. I don’t make them at home either. It’s deep-fried and as conscious-me matures, I am getting choosy with my choices of food. I prefer to bake or air-fry now than deep-fry. 

These beautiful, delicious, almost piquant breadsticks are a perfect replacement for deep-fried croutons. They are a notch up from our regular soup sticks. I didn’t miss those croutons. If you make these at home, you will adore them too. You are sure to munch on them without soup, when you bake them at home. These soup sticks are crunchy, crispy packed with flavours of garlic and rosemary. 

The process is easy and the complexity in the flavour and texture is artistic. As usual, I work towards making baking easy and attainable for every home kitchen. The complexity of fancy kitchen equipment and techniques draws a false picture of unattainable in our minds. You are a kitchen Goddess, so come with me and bake these magic wands at home. 

There is a video attached to the recipe below for a quick understanding. But still, I have a few pointers to share with you, so you get accurate results at home. Just go through these before going ahead with the recipe. 

The recipe starts with simply adding all the ingredients to the flour. Using water to knead it into a soft dough. 

This kneading can be done by hand or you can use a dough hook of your stand mixer to make the dough. Make sure to have a soft, pliable elastic dough. 

Add water to the flour gradually, so you have more control when kneading with your hand.

I prefer kneading on my kitchen counter, it gives me more room to work on developing the gluten in my dough. 

I have used fresh rosemary in the recipe. Which gives a charming, charismatic aroma to these breadsticks. If you can’t find fresh rosemary, you can use these dried ones. 

If you want to know about gluten and kneading click here

Gluten and Bread Baking

I have used instant dry yeast in the recipe. If you are a new baker and you want to know more about types of yeast and how to use them, click here. 

All About Yeast

The recipe requires parmesan cheese. I know, sometimes it gets difficult to find such ingredients. In case you can’t find it in the groceries near you, you will find it here. 

Drizzle the bowl with some oil before putting in the kneaded dough.

It is important to let the dough rest for an hour or more (till it gets double in size) Make sure to cover and keep it in a warm place. 

To roll out, simply dust the kitchen surface with some flour and flip the risen dough on that, dust a little more flour on the top and use a rolling pin to roll out a thick sheet of the dough approx 1/2 -1 cm thick. 

I love using bench scrapers. A good bench scraper is a convenient, practical tool for bakers. Use a bench scraper to cut the rolled out dough into strips. 

The approximate thickness would be 1/2 -1 cm thick. The length can vary according to your baking tray. Make sure to keep the even thickness or the sticks start to brown at the thinner spots very quickly. Which results in an uneven bake. 

You can brush the shaped sticks with egg wash or with some milk. This will help you achieve a gold-like colour. This egg wash will also make sure that the seeds you sprinkle on the top before baking keep stuck on the sticks. 

I have used a combination of sesame seeds and poppy seeds on the top. You can go with the same or change according to the availability or your preferences. 

These breadsticks might take a long to bake even after baking time is over. If you find a lack in the crunchiness of baked sticks, keep them in the oven for more time at the lowest temperature. Rotate the tray after 5-7 minutes of baking. You can bake all the batches and gather them in one tray and bake again at the lowest temperature. This time you don’t need to keep a gap between all the sticks.  It is ok if they overlap during the second bake. 

Also, let the baked sticks cool in the oven only, with the door ajar, this will ensure a beautiful texture. 

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