Award Winning Bread Sticks

If any novice BS’ers are out there, please continue reading this post. This may be one of the easiest recipes we’ve posted that will give you the most bang for your buck in terms of taste, presentation and just general awesomeness: Award Winning Bread Sticks. Guaranteed, these garlicy, cheesy, savory items will not only fill your belly but make it sing.

I found the original recipe on Bob & I’s favorite cooking community website, Taste Spotting and it comes from the blog of Jamie Cooks It Up. So let’s get into the recipe, because just thinking about it is making me hungry:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp yeast
• Stir the sugar and yeast in the warm water with a quick few stirs (don’t over stir!!) and let it sit for 5 minutes
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 1/2- 4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
• Johnny’s Garlic Seasoning

Once the water/sugar/yeast combo has had a chance to sit for 5 minutes, slowly knead in one cup of flour at a time (along with the salt). I used my blender’s dough hooks for the first time ever while making this and they worked great! Also helped to eliminate the mess of kneading. Mix in the remaining amount of flour, knead for another 5 minutes. Once completely mixed, let the dough ball rise for 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 170º F.

While you’re waiting for the dough ball to rise, melt your butter/margarine. Pour half of the butter/margarine on a cookie sheet and smooth it around until the sheet is evenly coated. Now that the dough has had time to rise, take it and set it on the cookie sheet (tip: I set my cookie sheet on top of the oven as it pre-heated – which will help the dough rise a bit extra, making it nice and spongy). Let the dough rise for another 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet before rolling it out, this will also make it easier to spread. Now it’s time to roll the dough around until it reaches all sides of the cookie sheet. Using a cooking paint brush, spread on the remaining butter/margarine onto the bread, evenly spread out your garlic spread and parmesan cheese. I also topped mine of with a bit of coarsely grated mozzarella cheese. It’s also a good idea to cut the breadsticks shapes into the dough before putting it in the oven. Does this by running a knife through the dough. This will help to make cutting the cooked bread sticks much easier.

Place the dough into the pre-heated oven for approximately 7-10 minutes (this lets them rise in the heat and gets them nice & fluffy). Now crank up your heat to 350°F and let them bake for another 12-16 minutes – until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let sit for another 5 minutes until you cut into them and devour them all in one sitting – just like I did 😛 hahaha.

Matched with a pizza dipping sauce, these things are DEADLY!!! These deserve an official rating of five nom’s on the nom-o-meter: Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom.

Carlene

(P.S. Anyone notice that Bob hasn’t posted in a while?!?! I wonder where he is? Any guesses?)