Grissini (Thin Bread Sticks)
If you think you can’t bake bread (which is probably a false notion, by the way), grissini are a sure-fire way to fast success.
These thin bread sticks could not be simpler to make. If you love playing with dough, you’ll get plenty of opportunity here. And who doesn’t love their eminently nosh-able crunch, not to mention the visual panache a bouquet of these babies adds to the dinner table?
The recipe, adapted from Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, uses a simple pizza dough. A food processor makes very short work of the mixing, but the dough may also be mixed by hand (7 to 8 minutes) or in a stand mixer (5 minutes).
If you don’t need 64 grissini, refrigerate half the dough and make pizza for breakfast.
Grissini (Thin Bread Sticks)
Yield: 64 bread sticks
Time:
- Mix: 2 – 10 minutes
- Ferment: 1.5 – 2 hours
- Divide/shape: 10 minutes per 16 bread sticks
- Bake: 25 – 30 minutes per 16 bread sticks
Ingredients:
- 623 g flour
- 397 g water at room temperature
- 6.5 g (2 t.) instant yeast
- 9 g (1.5 t.) salt
- 28 g (2 T.) olive oil
- topping of your choice (I used a mixture of coarse Kosher salt, coarsely-ground pepper, and chopped fennel seed, as suggested by the original recipe)
Method:
- Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.
- Combine the water and olive oil in a liquid measuring cup. With the processor running, add the liquid to the dry ingredients in a steady stream.
- Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 90 seconds.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled container. Cover the container and let the dough ferment at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1.5 – 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. A baking stone and steam are not needed.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into four equal pieces. The steps that follow will be repeated for each of the four pieces. Keep the pieces you’re not working with covered.
- On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 12 x 8 inches. The exact dimensions are not critical.
- Cut the dough into 16 strips of equal width. A pizza cutter works very well for this.
-
Fold each strip over on itself (according to Baking Illustrated, this makes it stronger). On an unfloured surface, roll the strip into a long snake. Make it a bit longer than the length of your baking sheet, to allow for spring-back.
- Place the snakes evenly spaced across the width of the parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Lightly spray or brush the grissini with olive oil and sprinkle on the topping.
- Bake at 350F for 25 – 30 minutes, until golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
Maryann October 4 2007 at 08:15 am 1
Love these and the photo is beautiful
Mimi October 4 2007 at 05:51 pm 2
These are gorgeous. We had a restaurant who made grissini and had them waiting on the table when you sat down. I forgot about how wonderful that was until I saw your pretty photo.
ejm October 4 2007 at 10:35 pm 3
Those look beautiful!
I see that you used commercial yeast for them. Have you ever used your wild yeast to make them? Please correct me if I’m wrong but they seem like they may be perfect candidates for the leftovers from feeding the starter.
-Elizabeth
Susan October 6 2007 at 08:51 am 4
Maryann, thanks! I had fun with the photos.
Mimi, to tell you the truth I used to make these a lot, but then I too kind of forgot about them until my husband requested them recently. It’s nice to have a memory jog now and then, isn’t it?
Elizabeth, great idea. Will you volunteer to try it and let us know how it works?
blue zebra October 7 2007 at 08:56 am 5
Susan great pictures and write up as usual! I have never tried to make grissini before! But dh’s birthday is coming up so that may be the inspiration along with your post!!!
BZ
Kim October 7 2007 at 10:17 pm 6
Love your grissini as well as the way your took photo of them.
Nicole October 9 2007 at 02:18 am 7
These are one of those things that I’ve always meant to try but just haven’t! I love the photos and my favorite part of the post is when you suggest saving half the dough for breakfast pizza
Susan October 9 2007 at 06:43 am 8
BZ, thanks and I’m sure you will create a wonderful birthday meal, with or without the bread sticks.
Hi Kim, I’m glad you like the photo. I like the way the grissini look in the blue pitcher, which was made by my husband years ago.
Nicole, I really do often make pizza for breakfast when I have leftover dough of any kind! My countertop oven is perfect for this.
ejm October 9 2007 at 02:45 pm 9
Who me??!!
I’ll try to remember to do it. So often I can’t seem to get it together to actually do something wise with my leftovers. (Our composter is benefitting greatly these days)
-Elizabeth
Curt October 10 2007 at 08:22 pm 10
I’ve got a lot to learn from you! I can’t believe I haven’t gotten over here sooner, but just looking at your bread, I’m going to be reading a lot as I try to figure out this bread stuff. I love the photos.
Susan October 11 2007 at 08:06 pm 11
Elizabeth, no pressure, but if you do it I’d love to hear how it goes.
Curt, I have enjoyed your posts at Just Baking and I’m looking forward to seeing more bread from you there.
Aimee October 17 2007 at 07:20 am 12
Beautiful grissini. I love to serve these at a wine and cheese. They disappear so fast!
Anh October 17 2007 at 08:46 pm 13
Your grissini is wonderful. I have a recipe calling for these. Will be trying your recipe real soon!
Susan October 20 2007 at 07:36 am 14
Aimee, they do go fast, don’t they? Thanks for stopping by!
Anh, I’d love to see your recipe.
Farmgirl Susan October 27 2007 at 11:14 am 15
These look wonderful. I definitely need to try this recipe. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never made breadsticks! (Though I have had pizza for breakfast.)
Susan October 27 2007 at 05:01 pm 16
Hi Farmgirl Susan, don’t be embarrassed; you’ve been busy baking a lot of other delicious breads!
blog from OUR kitchen » grissini October 31 2007 at 10:04 am 17
[...] I read about Susan’s (Wild Yeast) grissini, I thought they would be perfect for using up leftovers after building up the starter in [...]
ejm October 31 2007 at 03:23 pm 18
Farmgirl Susan, you MUST take the time to make breadsticks (I had never made them before a week or so ago either) They’re great!
And WildYeast Susan, they are the perfect things to make to use up the leftovers from feeding one’s wild yeast starter. (I used the leftovers and only half the yeast in our pizza recipe and had the perfect amount of leavening power.)
-Elizabeth
Katy November 1 2007 at 08:03 am 19
Wow, these look incredible. I’m sad to admit that I’m one of those people who think that they can’t make bread, but these look so yummy — definitely one I’ll try!
ejm November 7 2007 at 09:10 am 20
Susan, in step number 10, you have, “Fold each strip over on itself”. This is a lengthwise fold, yes?
-Elizabeth
Susan November 8 2007 at 03:33 pm 21
Elizabeth, if by “lengthwise” you mean fold the strip so that its length is cut in half (e.g., an 8″ strip is now a double 4″ strip), then yes.
Laura GF November 8 2007 at 07:48 pm 22
Susan, I’m so glad I found this recipe! Can I make these ahead of time? Any thoughts on the best way to store these if I can?
ejm November 9 2007 at 05:48 am 23
Oh!!! That’s what I did the first time and I thought that must be wrong. I guess I just didn’t roll them enough after folding them to make them really thin like yours.
(Isn’t the English language wonderful? By “lengthwise”, I meant so they were just as long but half the width… glad to have straightened it out.)
-Elizabeth
ejm November 11 2007 at 04:24 pm 24
Susan, I thought you might be interested to hear that I have just weighed the “discarded amount” from building up my starter in preparation for making bread tomorrow. It is about 50gms. I’m guessing it’s usually that amount and that is probably how much I put into the pizza dough before making the bread sticks.
We used today’s extra to make waffle batter for tomorrow morning…
-Elizabeth
P.S. The buildup is 3Tbsp flour, 2 Tbsp water and 2 Tbsp starter. On feeding days (non-buildup days) I mix 2Tbsp water 2Tbsp starter 2Tbsp flour. Feeding days are two days apart. (I hope this made sense!)
Susan November 14 2007 at 07:40 am 25
Laura, they always get eaten pretty much right away in my house but I think it would be fine to make them a bit ahead and store them in an airtight container once cool. I’m guessing they would also freeze well. They’re already dried out, so no worries about that. Thanks for stopping by!
Elizabeth, thanks for the info. I’m going to try it with the leftover starter.
Y November 18 2007 at 02:52 am 26
Love your photo of the grissini. I made some from a Locatelli recipe recently - couldn’t stop just at one stick!
cachou66 November 20 2007 at 09:26 am 27
j’adore tout ce que je vois mais je ne comprends pas l’anglais, sniffff….
Amelia Oil Blog » Blog Archive » Tortas de Aceite November 22 2007 at 02:42 am 28
[...] that either pizza dough (made with a bit of olive oil; my dough was left over from making grissini), or a basic French bread dough (no oil), can be used. I refrigerated the dough after the first [...]
Susan November 24 2007 at 08:20 am 29
Y, yes, they’re addicitve!
cachou66, et je ne parle pas bon français. C’est dommage!
Laura GF November 28 2007 at 10:27 am 30
Susan, I made these for my daughter’s birthday party and they were such a hit. I can definitely see why they don’t last long at your house
Thanks for this awesome recipe, I love it.
Susan November 30 2007 at 12:08 am 31
Laura, I’m glad the recipe was a success for you. Thanks for letting me know!
Bev December 7 2007 at 10:24 am 32
love these!!
I am going to make these, I think maybe some pesto or cheesy breadsticks are in order!
Susan December 12 2007 at 08:37 am 33
Bev, yours turned out great!
http://yummytummygrub.blogspot.com/2007/12/bread-sticks-grassini.html
Bread Sticks (Grassini) « February 28 2008 at 02:43 am 34
[...] 10, 2007 in Bread, Snacks Another great recipe from Wild Yeast. This time I decided to try Grissini (or bread sticks). As you will see if you follow the link to the recipe, you separate the dough [...]
Preprandial drinks, or the apéritif « Sniff & Quaff May 29 2008 at 02:42 pm 35
[...] for February) and moments later she brought us two beautiful glasses of sparkling wine and a jar of grissini – a long skinny breadstick invented in Torino, capital of Piedmont. There was something [...]