I have always wanted to make my own “grissini” (bread sticks) because I could not find the one available in shops around here to my liking (too soft, too greasy, too hard, etc .. etc..).

I have always wanted to make my own “grissini” (bread sticks) because I could not find the one available in shops around here to my liking (too soft, too greasy, too hard, etc .. etc..).

Not even the ones made in Torino! Taste and texture was my main motivation. Fame came later! This is why I attended the evening course organized by ICIF in Costigliole d’Asti (ICIF stands for Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners). Our trainer was Alessandro Giagnetich: a power chef who can make what seem like complicated things to cook easy to make with the tools available in everyone’s kitchen. To be highly commended for his skills and recommended for your evening cooking classes in Costigliole d’Asti.

Your motivation for making grissini maybe different from mine: you may want to make them because they don’t do them where you live (likely), or because you want to look good with your guests, the very one you invited for dinner because you cooked grissini. Either reason is a valid one to me. Furthermore you will have an excellent opportunity of telling the guests you invited for the occasion, how you did them and how demanding it was, instead of having to talk about their kids (boring) or how sick they are, where, or will be (demoralizing).

You do not want to let them know how easy it is to make grissini!

So: let’s start preparing them!

Homemade “grissini”: 4 to 6 servings
Difficulty: medium
Time to prepare: 10 min for mixing flour and kneading (with a dough blender)
2 to 4 hours rising (while you go shopping or read a book, or else)
15 min. to shape the “grissini”
10/12 min to cook

Ingredients

400 grs of type 0 flour
200 grs of warm water
40 grs of extra virgin oil
5 grs of dry yeast
One small spoon of sugar (optional)
8 grs of salt
A handful of corn or “durum wheat” flour

Preparation

Warm the water; pour in yeast and sugar (optional), stir.
Pour the salt in the flour, stir, and pour in the warm water and the oil.
Knead by hand (bloody tiring and dull) for at least 20 min or use the dough blender (easy, no sweat, no need to do anything yourself – great invention) for 8 min at low speed. Stop when the dough is smooth and shiny.

Shape the dough like a football ball, cover the bowl with a wet towel and put it in the oven at 40 deg. centigrade. The dough will have risen and more than doubled in size in 2/3 hours. Alternately leave the bowl at room temperature: in this case the dough will be ready in 4/5 hours. No need to watch this: relax, go shopping, read a book, phone your friends, walk your dog, or socialize. In any case the dough will not be overdone, even 12 hours later.

Take the dough out of the bowl, fold it over twice, very gently, and very, very gently, work it to become a flattish rectangular shape about 8 cm by whatever length, by 2/3 cm thick.

Oil the working surface with a brush, oil the surface of the dough with the same brush, and cover everything with a film twice as large as the dough.

Leave the dough to rest a while, say, 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven at 2300 degrees centigrade

Cut 2 cm thick slices of dough stir them, and lay each grissino in the baking tray.

Put the tray in the oven (which by then will be at 230 degrees centigrade) and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Baking time depends mostly on the size of the grissini and the blend of flour you have used.