For Christmas this year, Matt got me a book by Paul Hollywood, one of the judges on The Great British Baking Show. If you haven’t watched this, I definitely recommend checking this out on Netflix. It’s relatively detailed in teaching you some technical recipes and is a feel-good show. To be honest, I’m not the best baker. It’s my lack of patience and inability to strictly stick to a recipe. Cooking definitely allows me more creativity and to work on many things at once.
However, it seemed like the proper time to at least try out some new baking recipes. Ultimately, my goal is to have a few recipes that I’ve practiced on several times to the point where they are less tedious and I can pull out of my back pocket to impress friends or family. These breadsticks seemed like the perfect place to start. I’ve changed the recipe a good deal to 1) accommodate for the lack of UK ingredients 2) including flavors I personally love- everything bagel seasoning and parmesan! What could go wrong?
Everything Bagel Parmesan Breadsticks
Make 10 large breadsticks
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200g bread flour
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300g whole wheat flour
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10g sea salt
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10g instant yeast
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30g unsalted butter, slightly melted and chopped into pieces
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juuuust under 12 ounces water
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grated parmesan cheese, to taste (I used about 1/4 cup)
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everything bagel seasoning, to taste (I get this from Trader Joe’s- you can also make your own by combining large grain sea salt, garlic flakes, poppy seeds & sesame seeds)
Put flours, sea salt and yeast into a mixer or food processor. Ideally if you have a standing mixer with a bread hook, use that. I don’t have one, so I used my food processor instead. Mix briefly to combine thoroughly. Add in butter and slowly add in water as the food processor is running. Let mix until it becomes a single ball. I essentially let it process for as long as I could before it was clear the whole thing was going to tip over because it was moving so much! This was about 3 minutes.
Place dough in a lightly oiled large bowl, covered, for an hour to let rise. Once it has risen, lightly knead dough for about 30 seconds and begin to divide the dough into 10 pieces (about 80g each). Then roll out each piece with your hand to make a breadstick shape- each one should be just under 12 inches long. Place each piece onto an oiled baking sheet (I used silpat). Brush with water and then sprinkle on parmesan and everything bagel seasoning. I sprinkled on the seasoning and then gently rolled the breadstick around to pick up anything around it and to get both the bottom and top of the breadstick.
Lightly cover baking sheet and let sit for another hour to rise.
Preheat oven to 425. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. If you have a rack, place on rack to cool. Otherwise just remove breadsticks from pan to prevent further cooking (which is what I did).