grissini (bread sticks)
When I read about Susan's grissini, I thought they would be perfect for using up leftovers after building up the starter in preparation for making bread.
And I was right!! I used just half the yeast in our pizza dough recipe and with the leftovers from feeding the starter, there was enough leavening power to make the dough double in exactly the same time that it would have with just yeast.
Making the sticks was dead easy, even though I couldn't quite wrap my mind around Susan's instructions for folding each strip in half (nothing wrong with the instructions - everything wrong with my brain....) So I folded them in half to make shorter rectangles and twisted them to join the pieces together.
Grissini are fabulous!! Many thanks, Susan, for posting about them so we would try them too.
I just realized that I should have stuck almond slivers on the ends of each bread stick to make them scary looking for Hallowe'en! (They do look like fingers, don't they?)
Comments
I had good luck with the Grissini from Reinharts BBA book. The family liked the thinner crispy version that was more like a cracker crust and less like a bread crumb. Thin twisted pieces flavored with savory herbs and seeds. I like the softer style you made that is easier to chew on personally but the Italian side of the family insists on crispy!
Eric
Next time I make these, I'm going to try making them thinner. These were wonderfully crispy when they came out of the oven but they weren't as fabulous the next day (we had a couple left over) even after we reheated them in the toaster oven.
I don't have Reinhart's BBA book to see how he shapes them but I think I may try Field's method. The drawing of her grissini looks like they are the thin crispy kind.
If you like the grissini bready, why not do some the way you like them and the rest the way the rest of your family likes them? Bake them on two different trays so you can leave the breadier ones in the oven longer.
-Elizabeth
The grissini look great, but I'm wondering something. Is it a forum rule that grissini are only to be photographed in a beautiful handmade vessel? I love your lizard mug!
>Is it a forum rule that grissini are only to be photographed in a beautiful handmade vessel?
:-D
KipperCat, I confess that I WAS copying Susan's idea when I stuck the bread sticks into the lizard cup. Thank you; I love the cup too. It was a gift from my mother-in-law. I believe she bought it from a pottery studio in Seattle. I usually use the cup as a vase for herbs but when I saw Susan's photo (as well as a very nice drawing of breadsticks standing up in a small basket in Carol Field's "The Italian Baker"), I immediately thought of using the lizard cup for my photo.
-Elizabeth
I thought people might be interested to know how much leftover starter I used. So last night, I weighed the leftovers from building up the starter in preparation for making bread today. It is about 50gms. I'm guessing it's usually that amount.
(We used the extra to make waffle batter for this morning...)