Sourdough breadsticks…

A plate of bread sticks and dipping sauce.

Following on from the sourdough crackers, this time I bring you the sourdough breadsticks..

A bunch of bread sticks are laying on the table

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..

A bunch of bread sticks on a cooling rack

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.

A close up of some food on the counterA bowl of flour and spoons on the table.

Bring it together as well as you can, it will be very stiff.

A bowl of dough is sitting on the table.

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 sΓ…β€šice the dough into 1cm strips.

A close up of some dough on top of a table

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.

A tray of dough is lined up on the counter.

Artist licence!!

At this point you can try wrapping some seeds or spices or whatever you fancy into a few.

A close up of some bread sticks on the table

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

A bunch of bread sticks sitting on top of a sheet.A bunch of bread sticks are on the pan

Enjoy!!!

To store, keep them in an airtight container, I prefer a tin lined with baking paper rather than a plastic box

A plate of bread sticks and dipping sauce.

38 thoughts on “Sourdough breadsticks…”

  1. 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!

  2. 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 πŸ™‚

  3. 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.

  4. 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!

  5. Hi Jen, I always start with active fed starter πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ» I hope that helps and I hope you like them πŸ™πŸ»πŸ™πŸ»

  6. 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 πŸ™‚

  7. 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.

  8. That’s great news, thank you πŸ™πŸ»πŸ™πŸ»πŸ™πŸ»

  9. And to follow up on my earlier comment–the everything bagel seasoning was fine, but I prefer the plain breadsticks!

  10. I haven’t tried it myself but I’m sure you could πŸ‘πŸ»

  11. Are these supposed to cook for 45 min total (30 then 15) or 15 total after 30 min preheat/steam

  12. My first prove took aaaaaages! but it got there in the end! Loved them.

    Can you do a baguette recipe please??

  13. Great πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»
    Will do 😊😊

  14. 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!

  15. Thank you πŸ™πŸ» I meant the dough before you’ve shaped it πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»

  16. Thank you so much, I’m so glad you like it πŸ™πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»

  17. 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!

  18. 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?

  19. Yay, have fun! Oh gosh, too many choices, but homous or mutabal always work for me πŸ₯°

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