Grissini - Got Beer?

I admit it. It was pure laziness on my part. I wanted to try something else, and the Grissini seemed quick and easy. And in fact, they were.

I roasted some garlic by drizzling it in olive oil, then placing a few cloves on a sheet of parchment paper. It was supposed to be at 350 for up to 45 minutes; for Ol' Luke I set it to 325 and gave then about 25 minutes.

Surprise! Luke still got them. I had made extra, with some other plans in mind, but all of the cloves were fried to a crisp except the largest, plumpest ones. I ended up using one fat clove for the bread sticks, and it was plenty!

Here is some grated Asiago cheese:

I am fortunate enough to live fairly close to a cheese factory that exchanges cheeses with other local factories. Fresh cheese, relatively inexpensive, has made me a real snob when it comes to cheese choices. They make a blue cheese that...

...eh, I am daydreaming again, and starting to drool on the keyboard. I will talk cheese another time.

The extruded oil stuff in the supermarket, wrapped in plastic and marketed under a name that rhymes with Draft, well, I refuse to eat it.
Yechh!

The dough was very dry, to the point where I got out a stronger pair of reading glasses to see if I had read the home ingredient list correctly. I had. I added extra water and olive oil until I could successfully make a dough. I let it ferment for the required hour, with little or no noticeable difference. I rolled it out, sliced it up with a pizza cutter, and then rolled it with my hands.
















Once I had them fairly uniform, I spritzed them with water, and then sprinkled sesame seeds and Kosher salt. Next time I will be more liberal! But they came out pretty good. Warm from the oven, they were just OK, but you know I had to try! Cooled down, they were a lot better. The flavors, especially the garlic, really came through.

I had been enjoying the beautiful spring day by opening the windows, and that made a huge difference in the rise. There was very little during the hour ferment, but the oven spring was nice, in fact, it had me worried! I had these all squeezed in on my little pizza stone. No problem, they were just fine.

I was also concerned with turning them when baking - but the bottoms browned well on the stone, no turning was needed at all. Next time I make them, I will let them get a little browner. They were close, but needed just a little more browning. Ol' Luke has me gun-shy.

Still - it was nice to have bread sticks on hand when the cute little kid next door delivered a May Day gift. She eats bread with such a passion that it makes almost anything look good!


My only real regret is that I did not have any beer on hand! I had to resort to drinking some near-beer, which I use for cooking. Good stuff! Salt, garlic, cheese, olive oil, and crispy bread? How could you go wrong?


Stay Mellow!