I kind of think these easy homemade breadsticks have actual magical powers. Seriously. These bad boys have helped me make instantaneous friends at church functions when I’m the new girl and made sad people happy. My friend Natalie, who used to work as my secretary (when I was an apartment manager; I’m not cool enough to actually have a personal secretary), loved these breadsticks; I’m pretty sure she only put up with the mind-numbing inanity of the world of apartment managing because there was a reasonable guarantee that she would get breadsticks on a semi-regular basis.
I can’t take all the credit. Or any of it, really. This is my friend Lisa’s recipe. But I use it for everything–pocket sandwiches (like Hot Pockets, only not gross), breakfast pocket sandwiches, pizza crust, pizza on the grill, pizza pockets, whatever. One major advantage is that this dough is very, very forgiving. If you’re just getting started, we recommend, checking out these tips on how to work with yeast dough, but this is a great dough to start with if you’re a yeast dough virgin or if you’ve had bad experiences working with yeast in the past.
how to make them
To get started, you’ll need some yeast, sugar, and warm water. The water needs to be about 105-115 degrees F, which you can measure with a thermometer if you want, but I always say water hot enough that would feel like a hot shower but not so hot you wouldn’t want to wash your hair or your face in it. If it’s not warm enough, the yeast won’t activate and if it’s too hot, the yeast will die. The sugar feeds the yeast.
In a large bowl (the bowl of your mixer, if you have one), combine water,
sugar, and yeast.
Let stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly.
Add salt
and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour
and mix well. Gradually add more flour (usually between 3-4 cups, depending on your elevation and your humidity) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl
and it barely sticks to your finger.
Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
before
after
While the dough is rising, line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Remove from bowl and place on a surface sprayed with cooking spray. Roll into a rectangle and cut into 12 strips with a pizza cutter.
Roll out each piece of dough into a snake about 18″ long, then drape the middle of the “snake” over your forefinger
and twist the dough.
Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining 11 pieces of dough. Try to space them evenly, but it’s okay if they’re close; pulling apart hot bread is one of life’s greatest pleasures!
Cover pan and allow dough to rise for another 30 minutes.
When there’s about 15 minutes to go, preheat your oven to 425. When done rising, bake for 12-15 minutes (it will depend on your oven) or until golden on top.
Rub some butter on top of the breadsticks (just put a ziploc bag on your hand, grab some softened butter, and have at it) and sprinkle with garlic bread seasoning
or the powdery Parmesan cheese in a can and garlic salt (or you could sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar. I did that once. It was awesome). If you’d like, you can serve with marinara for dipping.
They’re amazing hot, but I’m not gonna lie, they’re also pretty amazing at 11 pm when your kids are in bed and you’re pondering the meaning of life in the dark in the kitchen.
Breadsticks
Description
These easy homemade breadsticks are guaranteed to help you win friends and influence people! This is also a really great beginner’s recipe when getting started with yeast doughs!
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup warm (105–115 degrees) water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3–4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Butter
Garlic Bread Seasoning
Instructions
In a large bowl (the bowl of your mixer, if you have one), combine water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly.
Add salt and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour (usually between 3-4 cups, depending on your elevation and your humidity) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and it barely sticks to your finger.
Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk. While the dough is rising, line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Remove from bowl and place on a surface sprayed with cooking spray. Roll into a rectangle and cut into 12 strips with a pizza cutter.
Roll out each piece of dough into a snake about 18″ long, then drape the middle of the “snake” over your forefinger and twist the dough. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining 11 pieces of dough. Try to space them evenly, but it’s okay if they’re close; pulling apart hot bread is one of life’s greatest pleasures!
Cover pan and allow dough to rise for another 30 minutes.
When there’s about 15 minutes to go, preheat your oven to 425. When done rising, bake for 12-15 minutes (it will depend on your oven) or until golden brown. Rub some butter on top of the breadsticks (just put a ziploc bag on your hand, grab some softened butter, and have at it) and sprinkle with garlic bread seasoning or the powdery Parmesan cheese in a can and garlic salt.
Notes
Serving suggestions:
- Omit garlic bread seasoning and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar; dip in cream cheese frosting
- Serve alongside homemade pizza sauce for dipping
Thank you so much! This is the breadstick recipe I’ve been looking for!
Yep, the best pizza dough ever. I will never buy the refrisgerated roll again, can even compare, plus it is really easy to put together. I would love to see a whole wheat variation.
Is there a specific kind of thermometer i need to use to check the water temperature?
Also, when i add the flour to the yeast mixture do i need to use my hands to mix it or use a specific tool?
I’m new at this but i CAN’T wait to try this at home.
Maria–You can use a candy thermometer or you can just gauge it by touch–my rule of thumb is that it should be hot enough that you’d want to take a very warm shower in, but not so hot that you wouldn’t want to wash your face or hair in it.
As far as adding the flour to the yeast mixture, if you have a stand mixer, you can use that. Otherwise, just use your hands! 🙂 Just be careful not to add too much flour–that’s really easy to do when you’re mixing dough by hand.
You can TOTALLY do this! 🙂
Thank You soo much Kate for the easy tips. I’m definitely trying this tonight. My family are such bread lovers. I take it that if i want to make more, i just double the recipe right?
You got it Maria!
I’m cruising this recipe to make for a vegan crowd this weekend and this tip about how hot is right hot is AWESOME.. I know exactly what that would feel like and thus wala!! 🙂 THANKS
This makes the best pizza crust!! The recipe along with your tips from the cookbook turned out a perfect pizza.
A few clicks and I'm not sure how I stumbles across this blog, but I have fallen in love! I've been looking for an easy, tasty pizza dough recipe, and I can NOT wait to try making these breadsticks… YUM! We also made your peanut butter playdough today, and my toddler loved it! So did the other kids we had over… kids between the ages of 2 and 11, it was a hit across the board. I can't wait to explore this blog some more!
I was just wondering if you could make the dough in the morning and put it in the fridge to rise for later?? I LOVE this recipe and use it 2 or 3 times a week, but today I need to make it ahead! Thanks so much! I love your site and I ordered yoru cookbook!
I have totally made these before and love them. However tomorrow I am planning to make them for a crowd. Can you double the recipe and have it rise the same, etc? Or do I need to make two seperate bowls of dough? Also, for the future has anyone tried freezing this or making it ahead and keeping it in the fridge? Thanks!
I just made these tonight and they are AWESOME! I was so proud of myself after making them because they looked and tasted SO good.
Mary–You can always add more flour, but I'd do it in the initial mixing phase (although if you're rolling it on a floured surface, some will make it in that way, too). It's pretty much impossible to give an exact figure of how much flour goes in, just because there are so many variables, so just add enough until the dough barely sticks to your finger when you touch it and you'll be golden. 🙂 Hope that helps!
I made these again tonight and both times I'm having a hard time twisting them because they are so soft. Have you ever added more flour after letting them rise? Would that hurt it if I did?
If anyone is thinking of making these but doesn't have all the ingredients to Kate's magical garlic seasoning – wait because the seasoning is OH MY GOSH! My husband called these a drug!
Kate, as usual, your stuff completely rocks! And, as usual, mine tastes good but doesn't look nearly as nice as yours. Oh well, my mouth doesn't really care what it looks like :). Thanks for the post! They were so yummy! And now I'm on to look for these allegedly evil lemonbars….:)
Jen–Yep, you can totally do that! Just measure out what you need from the packets; I've done that a lot. 🙂
I've been looking for a pizza dough/breadstick recipe for a while now. I have a good focaccia dough that I make into pizza sometimes but still want something different. I'm definitely going to try this. Question, though (sorry if I missed this somewhere, I skimmed the comments and didn't see it) Can you use packets of yeast instead of bulk yeast? Would one packet be enough, or would it be best to open up a second one and measure out the extra 3/4tsp?
I just made these last night and my husband said they were amazing! The only thing I did different was add 1/2 TBSP of salt instead of 1/2 tsp. They seemed a little bland (no offense) with only the 1/2 tsp. And then I made the garlic bread seasoning and after I let it rise the first time I kneaded some of the seasoning into the dough, shaped the sticks, then let them rise again. After they baked I brushed on the butter and sprinkled more of the garlic bread seasoning on top. They were delicious!!
These are amazing. We had breadsticks like this when we were in the US this summer and my boys have been asking me to make some since we got back. They loved them.
I tried this just now and I did it by hand. I'm waiting for the first rise, and I was just wondering if anybody else had used less flour than what was specified? I added the 1 1/2 flour first and mixed it, and gradually added more flour. I've only added about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of flour when it already got dry (not sticking to fingers) so I stopped adding flour…
we love these breadsticks!
Okay, forget that last comment. I googled it and apparently the salt does prevent the yeast from rising. I'm starting over 🙁
I'm trying these right now but accidentally added the salt to the first step…is that seriously bad? I guess I'll find out but I just wondered if the salt prevented the yeast from working. From all the comments, I'm excited to try these!
I just made this pizza dough and your pizza sauce for my husband and his brothers (the sort of bachelors who order pizza at least once a week). It was a smashing success, and they all want me to make it again! I was really nervous about the dough (I haven't had a lot of success), but it really was foolproof! Thanks for helping me make homemade better than delivery!
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These were fantastic. I sprinkled some with cinnamon and sugar and some with my Carrabba's Italian blend. They were terrific. I actually preferred them plain!
Thanks for a great recipe.
I am excited to try so many of your bread recipes and am wondering if you've played around with flours any? I have been halfing recipes with either whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour. Is that gonna totally ruin the good thing you've got going here? Really just trying to figure out bread baking and some of the healthiest options for our family.
Oh my goodness! I just made these. DELICIOUS! I put garlic and oregano on some, garlic and mozzarella on some and cinnamon and sugar on some. All of them were great!
This is an excellent pizza dough recipe! 🙂 I had never attempted to make home made pizza dough solo before (I had helped my mom make some in the past) but this recipe looked pretty simple, so I decided to try it. The hubby and I both really, really liked it! It is definitely a dough recipe I'm gonna keep around! :)I want to try this dough as breadsticks one of these days…they sound delish as well! 🙂
I made this dough again, using half for breadsticks one night (which were of course wonderful) and stuck the other half in the fridge. I made the other half of the dough into pizza two nights later. I was a bit worried about the texture since it had been in the fridge so long, and forgot to poke the crust with a fork before baking it prior to adding toppings, so it was pretty ugly after I chipped off the giant bubble that was the surface. But you know what? It was the BEST pizza I've ever made! The crust was fantastic. I've been looking for the perfect pizza crust recipe for years, and this is it. I'd imagine it's great fresh, but I think sitting in the fridge really helped it. I know you can freeze dough, but usually recipes say to freeze it before it rises- do you think it would work to let it rise in the fridge for 2 days, then pop it in the freezer so all I'd have to do is let it thaw before using? I'm not good at anticipating 2 days in advance when we'll want pizza!
Originally I was going to make the pizza this afternoon but then lacking groceries just did the breadsticks with marinara for dinner. They took way longer then I thought, almost two hours, which of course a little math of the recipe could have told me but they were SOOOOO WORTH THE WAIT! Thank you! This is our third best bites recipe and we love them all!!!!
I just made these breadsticks tonight! I'd never made breadsticks before. I didn't read the comments first and didn't understand the directions for twisting them- I twisted them alright but ended up with foot long bread sticks because I didn't fold them in half first :oD I brushed mine with olive oil and butter sprinkled with kosher salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic powder before baking. They were a *tiny* bit flat I think because the pastry brush squashed 'em, next time I'll brush them before letting them rise the second time. All in all, these bread sticks are wonderful. Soft, fluffy, and incredibly tasty thanks to the seasoning on top. I should've sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top some!
Sheri–No, that totally makes sense. You'd only use the garlic salt and parmesan if you're not using the garlic bread seasoning.
Hope that helps!!
Quick question. When it says: "sprinkle with garlic bread seasoning or the powdery Parmesan cheese in a can and garlic salt", does that mean, sprinkle the garlic seasoning AND garlic salt? Or do you just add the garlic salt if you're using only the Parmesan cheese?
Hope that makes sense.