Learning to make bread - month six: grissini

The humble bread stick.  My first effort at these probably wouldn't impress any serious baker, but for my first attempt I was rather pleased with them.

An ever-reliable party nibble, the bread stick originates from Turin, and (according to Wikipedia) was apparently first made as far back as the 14th century.



Kneaded and ready to rise...

The recipe I used came from Linda Collister's "The Bread Book" (a gem I found in a charity shop).  Linda Collister is responsible for many of the recipes that appear in the Great British Baking series.  However, I would suggest getting your hands on a copy of her bread book if you can; it's very comprehensive and very user-friendly, even for a bread-making novice like me.



An hour later...
Linda Collister recommends that a slightly under-sized
dough is preferable to an over-risen one for this recipe

I couldn't resist experimenting with flavour, and tried sea salt, rosemary and chilli, as well as some plain (and some inadvertent combinations of the three!).  I added the seasoning as I rolled the sticks into shape.  While this worked well with the sea salt and chilli, I think the rosemary bread sticks would have been more successful if I had added the rosemary at the kneading stage.  As it was, the salt bread sticks were definitely my favourite.
 

Rolling out ready for cutting

 

Shaped and ready for the oven

These bread sticks would not win a competition for uniformity, but I like that as the lack of uniformity reminds me that these are homemade and, I think, adds to their charm.  What I would do differently next time though is to make each stick a little thinner and to cook them for longer.  These sticks did not have the "snap" that one would expect; however, they were delicious, and a perfect accompaniment to a mezze lunch.

A word on the sponge method
Collister's basic technique for bread-making includes a stage where you leave the batter to "sponge".  With the grissini, this stage comes after you have added the salt and yeast (I used fast-action dried yeast) - always remembering to add them on separate sides of the bowl of course - and poured the water and oil into a well in the middle.  The idea is to then draw a little flour into the liquid and then leave it to "sponge" for about 20 minutes - basically to become aerated and frothy.

This is the so-called "half-sponge method".  This is not a technique that I have used with any of the previous breads I have made.  I can't say that I was able to notice any discernible difference; however, I think to really notice the difference in flavour you would have to leave the batter to "sponge" for at least a couple of hours.  Dan Lepard's recipe for "the easiest loaf in the world" uses the half-sponge method (warm water, yeast and flour left for a couple of hours, or even overnight if possible).