Monday, May 24, 2010

Best Ever Homemade Salty Breadsticks

I don't usually eat bread (or buns, etc.) with dinner. UNLESS, they happen to be my salty breadsticks - so perfect for dipping in soups or stews and equally as wonderful for mopping up pasta sauce! Swoon!! I have been making these since I was a teenager...

INGREDIENTS (makes about 18 sticks)
1/4 cup butter
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder (sometimes I throw in a little extra!)
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk
sea salt / coarse salt


DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 450 degress F. Melt butter in 9x9 glass pan.

Use a fork to mix all dry ingredients (except sea salt) together in glass or plastic bowl. This should not take more than 40 strokes (if you want to count!), so look for it to come away from the sides of the bowl and cling together.



Sprinkle flour on your flat surface. I generally just use my bare counter since it wipes up quite easily. Dump out the dough, sprinkle it with flour, and knead lightly about 10 times. You want the dough to lose its stickiness and become elastic.


Get your sweet lil kitchen helper to roll out the dough. (I like to use a marble rolling pin because of its cold temperature.) Roll out the dough to a circle about 10-12 inches in diameter. It should be about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch in thickness.


Using a sharp cutting knife, cut the dough in strips and then down the centre. The dough will be sticky on the cut edges so you will want to work quickly now. Prop up your pan on one side so the melted butter pools at one end. Submerge a piece of dough in the butter, turning to coat on all sides. Place the dough at the opposite side of the pan as the butter. Repeat until all dough is coated in butter. You may need to tilt the pan to evenly redistribute any remaining melted butter throughout. Sprinkle your sea salt (or coarse salt) over the dough and pop it into the oven.


And 15-18 minutes later, you should have a wonderfully golden brown pan of goodness. See the butter bubbling in there?!? That is some kind of wonderful, right there! I like to let the breadsticks sit for a minute, and then I turn them over so any little bits of salt or butter can soak into the top. Serve immediately.


Baking Tip: Using an herb-infused sea salt on the top before baking is super fabulous! I made my own by covering fresh herbs completely in sea salt and letting it sit for a month or so. My fave salt flavours for these breadsticks are rosemary and thyme. Enjoy!! :)

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