Weeknight Breadsticks

These breadsticks can go from a carby day dream to on the table in an hour and a half. They are basically a glorious, fluffy, cheesy miracle.

I love bread. I have actual nightmares about having to eat gluten free or low carb. (Although if anyone tries this recipe with GF free flour, let me know how it turns out!)

Making bread often feels like a serious labor of love. Between the kneading and rising and shaping and what not, it can take hours. I used to only make bread on Sundays, when I had lots of time to plan accordingly.

Enter these breadsticks. From mixing to in your face, they can be done in an hour and a half. And most of that is rising time.

A bowl of soup served without a breadstick for dunking is like pie without ice cream. It’s fine.. but it’s so sad.

Start by mixing up your dough. Let me learn you a thing that I myself just learnt.

I was pondering why some recipes call for “proofing” your yeast in warm water before adding to the dry ingredients, and some call for just adding it with the flour right away. I came across this article,which basically explains that dissolving your yeast for it to get bubbly is “proof” that the yeast is still alive. So unless your yeast is close or past its expiration date, it’s really not necessary. And modern day yeast is much more easily dissolved than the yeast in days of yore, so it’s simply not necessary to dissolve and proof in warm water before baking with instant yeast! Knowledge is power, baby.

So, literally dump all of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, and let that baby do the heavy lifting. Or mixing, as it were. Add flour until the dough cleans the side of the bowl.

The dough will still be quite sticky- when you stick your finger in the dough, it should be mostly clean. It’s fine if it gets a little dough-y, but you don’t want it to be a soupy mess.

I hate getting more dishes dirty than necessary, so rather than put it into a new bowl, I just scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl and get the dough into a ball. Cover lightly with a cloth and let it rise for half an hour.

After the dough has doubled in size, plop it onto a greased and lightly floured counter.

Divide the dough into 18 pieces. I like to do this by dividing first into 3 pieces.

Then, I divide each of those pieces into 2 pieces.

Finally, I divide each of those pieces into 3 pieces.

Whatever floats your boat. You could bust out the kitchen scale to make it all even, but this recipe is extremely forgiving and it’s just not necessary. If you have some widdle breadsticks and some monster ones, it’s all good. Just someone’s lucky day at the dinner table!

Shape each little ball into a roughly breadstick-shaped log.

Melt 1/4 c butter in the microwave and pour into a 9×13 pan. Roll each breadstick in the butter. Arrange the breadsticks however strikes your fancy- I think it works best to do 2 rows of about 7-8 and the leftovers vertically.

They aren’t lookin too cute just yet.. Keep the faith.

Sprinkle generously with garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Grated or powdered parmesan cheese both work deliciously.  

This is my preferred garlic salt. And I love the grated parmesan cheese from Costco. I ran out and used freshly grated and couldn’t even taste the difference. Even powdered parm is perfect. Alliteration.

Let rise again for 15-20 minutes. Imagine that I remembered the take a picture of them all puffy and fat before going into the oven.

Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes, until beginning to lightly brown on top

I’d swipe left. Or maybe right. I don’t know which way you swipe to say you like someone on dating apps.

These are so yummy, guys. Fluffy, garlicky, buttery, cheesy… All of my favorite things.

They are perfect for serving with soup, pasta, roast- really any dinner can be improved by the addition of these tasty little buddies.

The fluff factor is off the charts. Like a perfect pillow of deliciousness.

We like to serve these with a bowl of super meaty marinara and a side salad, and dinner is served! It’s a family favorite over here for sure!