Following on from the sourdough crackers, this time I bring you the sourdough breadsticks..
These also worked really nicely, and even 3 days on from baking, still retained their snap!
As you can see, my shaping isn’t great, or even, but they taste good, so who cares?!
I made some of them unadulterated, as above, and got creative with the others, below, and added some toasted pumpkin, sunflower and linseeds. These were therefore thicker, and less crisp, but my son preferred them for the flavour the toasted seeds added..
NOTE: The dough for these can be prepared then rested in the fridge for a few days until you’re ready to bake them, or used immediately.
Ingredients
250g strong white bread flour
100g water
60g active bubbly starter
1tbsp olive oil
1/2tsp salt
Ground semolina (I used coarse semolina) to sprinkle on the counter
Seeds or other additions of your choice
Method
Mix the water, starter and olive oil together well, then add the flour and salt.
Bring it together as well as you can, it will be very stiff.
Cover with a shower cap or plastic bag, and leave for half an hour.
After the half an hour, perform a set of pulls and folds in the bowl, cover again and leave for another half an hour.
Repeat this another 2 times.
You can now either cover and refrigerate your dough for later use; or cover it again and allow it to rise for 1.5-2 hours.
*if you choose to refrigerate and use later, allow the dough to come up to room temperature for a good hour or more before using it
To make the breadsticks, cover your work surface with some flour, decant the dough onto the surface and spread it to a rectangle with your fingers. It will constantly want to pull back.
Cover it with cling film and leave for 5-10 minutes to settle then spread it out again. Try and even out the thickness across all of the dough to about 5mm.
(This is not particularly easy, my dough was very uneven!)
Prepare a baking sheet (you may need 2 large trays) by laying a piece of baking parchment paper across it.
Sprinkle some semolina on your work surface alongside your dough/tray.
Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to słice the dough into 1cm strips.
Roll them in the semolina then place on the lined baking tray.
Because my dough was too thin in the middle and thick at the edges I made twists with some of mine.
Artist licence!!
At this point you can try wrapping some seeds or spices or whatever you fancy into a few.
Once they’re all rolled or twisted and laid on the tray, cover the tray with a clean plastic bag or cling film and leave them to rise for half an hour whilst you heat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 230C fan.
Boil some water, pour it into a pan or oven proof bowl, and add it to the bottom of the oven to create steam.
After half an hour, turn the oven down to 190C fan.
Bake the breadsticks for 15 minutes, remove and cool on a rack.
*my oven has a hot spot so I turned the tray round half way through the bake.
*if the breadsticks are already looking dark at 13 or 14 minutes, use your judgement and remove the tray from the oven
Enjoy!!!
To store, keep them in an airtight container, I prefer a tin lined with baking paper rather than a plastic box
lovely post! I adore your colorful measuring spoons too….
but I bet you suspected that… 😉
I did ???
Oh my gosh, Elaine! This is marvelous! Now I just need to find some time to get going with sourdough! You are creating a wonderful resource here with your new blog, so I can’t wait to try it!
Thank you so much! I do hope you give it a go xx
Great idea to use your sourdough starter in breadsticks. I just have to convert your measurements into US. All ovens have a “hot spot” and I know where mine is 🙂
I like the twists! I think I’d add them regardless of the dough’s consistency. 🙂
Thank you x can you convert your scales to grams?
Yay! Thank you ???
Wonderful looking breadsticks! I am going to revive my starter.
A lovely tasty easy to follow sourdough stick recipe!
Yumm! They look amazing!
Thank you x x they were so good!
Sourdough breadstick dipped in pesto, yum. The toasted seed version sounds crunchy good. I keep a rye sourdough starter and will be using it with your breadstick recipe. Might just whip up a batch today.
Lovely! I hope you enjoy them 🙂
These look just awesome! Maybe a silly question, but do you make these with starter straight from your batch, or do you need to feed and wake up the starter before taking your 60g required for the recipe? Hope that makes sense. I’m planning on doing these soon. My family will gobble them up!
Hi Jen, I always start with active fed starter 👍🏻👍🏻 I hope that helps and I hope you like them 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Have just prepared the dough to make these for my 8 month old, he loves to chew on my sourdough crusts so thought they’d make some good finger food snack options. I subbed in some spelt flour for added flavour, would this affect the texture/amount of water required? My dough was SUPER stiff/dry. Stretch and folds not really possible. Thinking worst case they’d be more cracker like but still a tasty snack 🙂
How did they turn out?
Made these for the family tonight, they really enjoyed them!
Lovely! Thank you 😍😍😍
I have made these several times, and they are always such a hit! I roll mine in flour because I never seem to have semolina on hand. It works great and gives them what my friend calls an “artisanal touch.” And I’ve had great success using starter straight from the refrigerator, but I tend to feed my starter regularly, so it’s never quite “unfed.” I have a batch in the works today. I think I’ll try rolling half of the breadsticks in “everything bagel” seasoning and see how I like those compared to the plain breadsticks. It’ll be really hard to beat the plain breadsticks, though. They’re absolutely great.
That’s great news, thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
And to follow up on my earlier comment–the everything bagel seasoning was fine, but I prefer the plain breadsticks!
Can you freeze the cooked breadsticks ?
I haven’t tried it myself but I’m sure you could 👍🏻
Are these supposed to cook for 45 min total (30 then 15) or 15 total after 30 min preheat/steam
Bake for 15 mins
My first prove took aaaaaages! but it got there in the end! Loved them.
Can you do a baguette recipe please??
Great 👍🏻👍🏻
Will do 😊😊
I’ve made these a few times and they are delicious but have a question. When you say they can be prepared then rested in the fridge….do you mean that you get to the dough ball stage and rest that or actually get the the twisted sticks stage and rest those? Thanks so much!
Thank you 🙏🏻 I meant the dough before you’ve shaped it 👍🏻👍🏻
Are you using Levain for this recipe?
I use sourdough starter
Thank you so much, I’m so glad you like it 🙏🏻👏🏻
I like using sourdough for many things. I want to try your recipe. I, too, do not worry about shape as long as they are tasty! I also use the sourdough starter for bread (obviously), pizza dough is awesome, with just a small rise, overnight waffles, pancakes–no waste and plenty of taste! Thank you for this recipe!
Great news, thank you!
I’m new to this, but I finally have an active starter, so I’m going to try these. What is your favorite dip to have on the side?
Yay, have fun! Oh gosh, too many choices, but homous or mutabal always work for me 🥰