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Five breadsticks on wood board with marinara sauce.

Divine 1-Hour Breadsticks

Yield: 20 breadsticks
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

Dough:

  • 1 ½ cups warm water
  • 1 tablespoon instant yeast
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 to 4 cups (426-568 g) flour (see note)

Butter and Topping:

  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted (for the baking sheet)
  • Dried herbs, garlic salt and grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions 

  • In an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (or in a large bowl by hand), mix together the water, yeast, sugar, salt and one cup of the flour.
  • Continue adding the flour until the dough just clears the sides of the bowl; knead for about three minutes. It should be soft and slightly sticky without leaving a lot of residue on your fingers.
  • Let the dough rest in the bowl for 10 minutes.
  • While the dough rests, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spread the melted butter onto large, rimmed baking sheet (about 11X17-inches).
  • On a lightly greased countertop, pat the dough into a long rectangle, about 16-inches by 7-inches or so. Cut the dough every 1-inch (more or less) into strips with a pizza cutter.
  • Twist each strip slightly and place about 1/2-inch apart on the baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with dried herbs of choice, garlic salt and Parmesan cheese.
  • Let rise for 20 minutes (you can cover with greased plastic wrap, if desired, I usually go without). Bake for 15 minutes until golden.

Notes

UPDATE: The original recipe bakes at 375 degrees but I've found I like to bake them at 400 degrees to get them more brown on top.
Types of Flour: for the flour, over the years, I've made them most often with white whole wheat flour. They are a bit heartier and slightly more dense but still delicious. They are also spectacular with bread flour. Or just regular unbleached all-purpose flour. My favorite combo (seriously, I've made these so many times) is about 10 ounces bread flour and 9 ounces white whole wheat flour. Magical.
Flour Amount: keep in mind that even with the weight and cup measures given, with all yeast doughs, I never use the flour amount called for in the recipe as a hard fast rule. Because humidity, temperature, altitude and a multitude of other factors can impact how much flour you need in your yeast doughs, I always judge when to quit adding flour by the texture and look and feel of the dough rather than how much flour I’ve added compared to the recipe.
Yeast: this tutorial on yeast may help identify how a perfectly floured dough should be. For this recipe, the dough should be soft and just slightly sticky without leaving a crazy amount of dough residue on your fingers.