Actually very easy

Breadsticks

The beliefGrissini is assumed to be restaurant bread, and that thinness is assumed to be out of reach at home.

The truthGrissini is bread dough drawn into thin sticks and dried. The shape is made by hand, not by a mould.

1 hour 45 minutes

How to make it

What you need

400 g flour
230 ml warm water
6 g dried yeast
8 g salt
50 ml olive oil
Sesame, nigella or rosemary

How the engine read this list (6 lines)

400 g	Flour	flour
230 g	Warm water	water
6 g	Dried yeast	yeast
8 g	Salt	salt
46 g	Olive oil	olive-oil
20 g	Sesame	sesame

An empty weight means that line could not be turned into grams — either the amount is open ("to taste") or the ingredient has no record here. Neither enters the sum as zero; they do not enter it at all.

Bring the flour, yeast, salt, water and oil together and knead eight minutes.
Let it rise for an hour.
Press the dough into a rectangle on an oiled bench and cut it into strips a centimetre wide.
Take each strip by its ends and stretch it gently, then lay it on a tray. Stretching beats rolling.
Brush with oil and scatter sesame, nigella or rosemary.
Bake at 200 °C for 15 to 18 minutes, to gold.
Cool them on a rack: bendy while warm, crisp once cold.

Why it works

The only structural difference between grissini and bread is the ratio of surface to volume. The middle of a loaf holds water because it is far from any surface; in a one-centimetre stick the middle is already at the surface, and the water leaves completely in the oven. That is how one dough in one oven gives soft bread and a crisp stick. The generous olive oil sets the character of the break: fat between the starch chains stops a long, tough structure forming, so a grissini snaps cleanly rather than bending like a rod. The stretching is part of the technique too — as the dough is drawn, the gluten fibres line up along its length and the stick holds straight. Rolled without being stretched, grissini curl as they bake.

The rough sum

710 grams going in

1979 kcal in total

100% of the mass has figures behind it. This is the sum of what GOES IN rather than of what comes out. Wherever something evaporates, drains or ferments the two differ: a kilo of milk is 150 g of cheese.

Diets it qualifies for

Vegan Vegetarian Lactose-free

Storage & shelf life

How long it keeps

A closed tin at room temperature: 2 weeks
A jar, standing upright: 2 weeks
In a bag: Four days: moisture gets in
Fridge: Not advised

Like a cracker, grissini is a low-moisture product — but it carries yeast, so it carries a fermented flavour too. Being long and thin makes the drying easy: the centre of a stick is close to its surface, so the water can leave completely. Made thick, they hold moisture inside and go soft within a week. Standing them upright in a tin reduces breakage, not spoilage.

When to bin it Soft ones go back into a 150 °C oven for six minutes. A bitter smell means the fat has turned: throw them out.

History

Where it comes from

Grissini was made in seventeenth-century Turin by the baker Antonio Brunero for the young prince Vittorio Amedeo II, who had digestive trouble: the doctor asked for bread that was thoroughly baked with no raw crumb. The answer was not a better oven but a thinner bread. Napoleon’s fondness for Turin grissini carried it to France; today it is one of Italy’s protected products and an emblem of Piedmontese cooking.

The knack

A crooked stick is a sign of a hand, not a fault; for straight ones, press both ends onto the tray as you stretch.
Thin ones burn fast: bake thick and thin on separate trays.
With grated cheese in the dough, take them out two minutes early: the cheese darkens before the dough.

Dough and grain