BREAD STICKS - ANOTHER WEEKEND BAKING CHALLENGE

I made pizza this evening for hubby and it resulted in a light bulb moment?why not make bread sticks out of the extra dough (some times I am just not in the mood for pizza). When they came out of the oven, I brushed them with butter and rolled them in Parmesan cheese...oh man!!! They were even more delicious when I broke them open, buttered the insides and then dipped them in warm pizza sauce?is that SINFUL or what? Oh well, a person has to live a little once in a while, right???

2½ cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon of dry active yeast*** (see note)

2 tablespoons sugar
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1¼ cup warm water
Parmesan cheese to coat

No need to proof (or dissolve) your yeast in water with this recipe, just mix the dry granulated yeast right in with the first cup of flour. OK, here goes; Mix 1 cup flour and the next four ingredients in a stand mixer bowl and stir to distribute yeast.

Normally, most yeast recipes have you dissolve the active dry yeast in water that is 110 degrees before you add it to the flour. However, 99.9% of the time I do not do it that way. If you mix the dry yeast into the dry flour, you can add even hotter water because the flour will cool down the water before it can damage the yeast. That may sound complicated, but it isn't. The warmer water will jump start your yeast and your dough will raise faster with this method. It works so well that it is the only way I make bread (I use water that is 120 degrees). You can use an instant read thermometer to check the temperature of your water (when you first start to work with yeast) although you will quickly learn what temperature the water is by just holding your hand under the faucet.
Stir 1¼ cups of 120 degree water into the flour mixture and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Let this mixture sit for about five minutes.

Add another cup of flour (half cup at a time) beating well in between. When the dough gets too hard to mix with your spoon, attach your dough hook to your stand mixer and turn on low. Now here's a tip: when making dough, at this stage, something called "dough shag" is (can be) your enemy. If you add too much flour, too fast, you will get "dough shag" or shaggy pieces of dough.

In the next photo, see the dry white sections/layers next to the wet dough? That's called shag,

Click on the photo to see the shag more clearly

Shag is not totally a bad thing, it is just a clue that it is NOT time to add more flour. NEVER ADD MORE FLOUR IF YOU CAN SEE SHAG. Here is another photo:

See it? I intentionally added the flour a little too quickly so you could see this effect.

Click on photo

Don't panic if you see shag, just keep "kneading" with your dough hook and the shag will eventually incorporate into the wet dough. Don't add more flour until it looks more like this:
Eventually, you will get all 2½ cups of flour into the dough. When that happens, let your machine knead the dough (gently, on a low setting) for about 6 minutes. Stop you mixer every once in a while and pull all the dough off of the dough hook. Scrape down the walls of your bowl and turn the ball of dough over and start the mixer again. You will have to do this a few times until the shag totally disappears and the dough clings together in a nice semi-solid "lump".

At the end of six minutes (exact time is not crucial), the dough should have worked itself into a smooth ball that stays on the dough hook when you raise the hook out of the bowl. The interior sides of the bowl should be fairly clean. It should look like this:

See how the dough ball has "cleaned" all of the little bits off of the bottom and sides of the bowl? This is what you want to see. The dough will not be sticky and it will feel like play doh when you touch it. If the dough is too soft, it will pull itself off of the dough hook. If that happens, add another quarter cup of flour and knead it a little longer.

Remove your dough from the dough hook, form it into a ball and place it in a greased bowl (I use Pam). Spray the top of the dough with a little Pam, and cover it with plastic:

Place this covered bowl of dough in a nice warm place in your kitchen. Room temperature is OK, but if you have a warmer place (less than 110 degrees) place it there. After an hour, your dough will have risen substantially:

NOTE: The above photo is a double recipe, so your dough won't raise to the top of the bowl like this one did, but it should be smooth and rounded like this.

When the dough has fully risen, turn it out onto your counter (some people say flour the counter at this stage, but I NEVER do) and push all of the air out of the dough. Cover it with an inverted empty bowl and let it sit for 15 minutes to relax.

Cut dough into pieces about the size of a large plum. Roll them into ropes about 8" long and lay them on a lightly greased baking sheet a few inches apart. Spray the tops of the bread sticks with a short spritz of vegetable spray and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let them raise for about half an hour or until they look about twice their original size. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until they are nice and golden. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter and roll in Parmesan cheese.

Once you have had success with these simple bread sticks, you will be well on your way to making sandwich bread. The process is basically the same, except for the shaping of course. I hope you will try these breadsticks. They are very simple and straight forward.

NOTE: Yeast comes in little envelopes ¼ ounce envelopes (2¼ teaspoons per envelope). However, I buy yeast by the jar, so I always just use a tablespoon of yeast (3 teaspoons). Any dry active yeast will work.

NOTE: You will have much more success in your bread making if you understand that the amount of flour that goes into a recipe varies from day to day. Many serious bakers weigh their flour, but I find that keeping a close eye on how the flour is "behaving" works better than weighing. On a humid day it may take an extra tablespoon, on a rainy day a tablespoon less. So be stingy with that last half cup of flour until you see how the dough acts in YOUR climate. Keep in mind that the less flour you use, the more moist your bread will be.

NOTE: A lot of people have granite counter tops which are always cool to the touch. This will effect the length of time your bread takes to raise. I suggest that you find a warmer place to let your bowl of dough raise than on the granite.

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