Ingredients:
3/4 C warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 C warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
Directions:
1) In a large bowl, combine the water with the yeast, sugar and all-purpose flour. Set aside for 20 min, until bubbly.
2) Stir in the wheat flour, olive oil and salt and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 min. Add more flour where necessary. Coat the dough with olive oil and place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
3) Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into four pieces on a floured surface. Work on one dough while leaving the rest in the bowl with a damp cloth over it. For crispy sticks, roll them really thin and allow to cool down in the oven after baking. For crispy exterior and chewy interior, roll them to thickness of your finger.
4) Place the strips about 1/2" apart on an aluminium tray. Repeat with the remaining dough. Allow the grissini to rise until puffed, about 30 min.
5) Bake the grissini, in batches, on the top shelf of the oven preheated to 200 deg until lightly browned, about 10 min, rotating halfway through. Cool on a rack and continue until all the grissini are baked. Cool, then store in a sealed bag.
Remarks:
I must be dreaming when I was reading through the recipe! Interpreting "one-half cup" as 1 1 1/2 C, I wondered why Step 1 yielded a dough that's too dry. How can a dry dough become "bubbly"? In a bid to make up for my mistake, I increased the water to 1 C, activation time to 20 min, sugar to 1 1/2 tsp (how can one feed the yeast while depriving oneself of the sugar rush?) and whole wheat flour to 1 C. Fortunately, the dough turned out easy to mould!2) Stir in the wheat flour, olive oil and salt and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 min. Add more flour where necessary. Coat the dough with olive oil and place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
3) Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into four pieces on a floured surface. Work on one dough while leaving the rest in the bowl with a damp cloth over it. For crispy sticks, roll them really thin and allow to cool down in the oven after baking. For crispy exterior and chewy interior, roll them to thickness of your finger.
4) Place the strips about 1/2" apart on an aluminium tray. Repeat with the remaining dough. Allow the grissini to rise until puffed, about 30 min.
5) Bake the grissini, in batches, on the top shelf of the oven preheated to 200 deg until lightly browned, about 10 min, rotating halfway through. Cool on a rack and continue until all the grissini are baked. Cool, then store in a sealed bag.
Remarks:
I had rolled divided my dough into two - one rolled in powdered sugar with sesame seeds (top), the other incorporated with mixed herbs and sprinkled with salt (bottom), so as to create two varying flavours to this versatile recipe.
Mum commented that the bread was bland, and I agreed too. Perhaps I shouldn't have skimped on the salt and sugar! Also, the bread sticks lost their crispiness fairly quickly, within a few hours. Blame it on the bad humid weather we have here! Some fixes which I would propose, would be to bake the bread sticks at a lower temperature for a longer period, coat with caster sugar not icing sugar, as well as make those crispy thin types instead of the fatter versions. Toast lightly before consumption if possible!
More creative variations on grissini: squid ink, nori.
XO,Tiffany
