Breadsticks

School run and at pick up time Sophie is always hungry as she comes out and always asks, "Do you have anything for me mummy" not wanting to be armed all the time with sweets and biscuits i decided to try a homemade breadstick.  A snack not just handy for school kicking out time but anytime and can be made to any flavour you fancy.

I made some sweet and some savoury and used a basic breadstick base then flavoured afterwards


Recipe 

125g strong white flour
125g plain white flour
3g dried yeast
5g salt
160ml warm water
drizzle of oil

knead all of the above apart from the oil till you get a sticky dough then add a drizzle of oil and work this in until the dough is smooth.

place in a bowl drizzle with a little more oil and cover leave to rise until doubled.

turn out onto a well floured surface add some flour on top so you dont get your rolling pin stuck and roll to a 5mm thickness.  Cut into stripes about 1cm.

To Flavour

for the savoury i brushed the breadsticks in olive oil and then made 4 different flavours

garlic, rosemary and sea salt
smoked paprika
Parmesan cheese
poppy seed and sesame seed

for the sweet i made 1 flavour and pushed small chunks of white chocolate and raisins into the bread dough

now leave your breadsticks to prove for 30 mins

To Cook

Pop in a preheat oven at 200c for 20 mins till golden brown.

Green olive bread sticks

I love making bread and i hope to make more as Ella gives me more of a chance to do so,  but today i had a go at making Paul Hollywoods Green olive bread sticks, i have his book and i watched how he did it on the master class before i attempted it.

here is the recipe 

500g strong white flour

10g salt

10g yeast

400ml of water

2 tbsp olive oil 

500g of olives but i only had 300g 

use a dough hook in your mixer and mix the flour salt yeast and water together for 5 mins add the olive oil and mix for 2 more mins then add the olives and mix

leave to rise till tripled in size and once risen tip out into a heavy floured top and gently stretch out into a rectangle and cut up into 20-25cm long but 1 olive width strips.  Place on a tray and cover and leave for 30 mins before putting in the oven at 240c for 15 mins 

I have to say i was a little upset on this bake as the all important snap was not there and i think was down to the 30 min rise at the end and the olive impeding the width of the sticks.  But they look identical to the picture and i followed step by step with the book and the tv show as i made them.

 next time i do this recipe i will chop up the olives and make thinner one, but as a bread type they were delicious with a deep dense flavour to them which came from the olives and  the slow prove, and are great as a lunch snack or over a glass of wine.  I did save half of the recipe and made a focaccia which was really scrummy.