Triple. YUM.

Nothing says, “Happy Birthday, Mom!” like meat on a stick.

My fabulous grocery store rarely lets me down, but they did this time. I spent forever searching the internet for a recipe for “those crispy breadstick thingies that they used to serve at that little restaurant by my old church,” as you can imagine.

All I wanted to do was twirl some prosciutto around those breadstick thingies to round out the appetizer menu for my mom’s birthday. My husband had abandoned me for sleep hours before and it was far too late to open a bottle of wine and drink alone. (Plus, it sounds so… unhealthy.) If only Google could have read my mind!

I finally ran across a recipe for grissini at Wild Yeast. Twirling Prosciutto di Parma around the grissini proved to be a big hit – they were definitely my favorite appetizer. I served them with quartered fresh figs and homemade pesto mayonnaise.

Grissini (aka, those crispy breadstick thingies)
623 g flour
397 g water at room temperature
2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt (I used fleur de sel)
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Topping of your choice (I used more fleur de sel)
Pesto Mayonnaise, for serving

Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Combine the water and olive oil in a liquid measuring cup. With the processor running, add the liquid to the dry ingredients in a steady stream. Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 90 seconds. This made my food processor work harder than it ever had in its short life. I’ll do it in my stand mixer next time, increasing the time as necessary.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled container. Cover the container and let the dough ferment at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1.5 – 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly coat with olive oil.

Knead dough a few times to form into a boule. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. The steps that follow will be repeated for each of the four pieces. Keep the pieces you’re not working with covered.

On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 12 x 8 inches. The exact dimensions are not critical. Cut the dough into 16 strips of equal width. A pizza cutter works very well for this. (I used my trusty bench scraper.)

On an unfloured surface, roll the strip into a long snake. Make it a bit longer than the length of your baking sheet, to allow for spring-back. Place the snakes evenly spaced across the width of the prepared baking sheet.

Lightly spray or brush the grissini with olive oil and sprinkle on the topping. Bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Yields 64 breadsticks
Slightly adapted from Wild Yeast.

Originally uploaded by Confections of a Foodie Bride.

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