Home made grisini

Home made Grisini

 

500gr flour

2 teaspoons dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoon olive oil

 Around 250 mls warm water

 

I use a machine, so I just dump everything in and start the machine, my lovely little darling will do all the work. In the meantime, I preheat my oven to about 45 degrees Celsius.

 

After about 10 minutes in the machine, I check the dough, if it’s too hard (dry)I add some water and start the little baby up again, if the dough is nice and soft, it’s ready. Too wet, add some more flour.

 

Now I get my stainless steel bowl and add around 2 tablespoon olive oil into it, take the dough from the machine, form into a ball and use that ball, to wipe the interior of the bowl with the oil. Clingfilm on top and off into the oven until the dough has more than doubled.

 

Now it’s elbow grease time. Turn out the dough on a floured surface, punch down and start kneading, until the dough has a semi soft/hard feeling. It just should not be sticky anymore. Now I knead in some grated cheese (sharp cheddar or Parmesan is nice), 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds. Divide the dough into half and into one of the halves, knead in about 2 tablespoons of freshly chopped Rosemary. Pinch off small lumps of the dough, roll into a ball and then into long ropes. Once the rope has the thickness and length you want, sprinkle some semi coarse salt along the top of the rope and roll gently back and forth,  that is enough to get the salt to adhere.

Lay the ropes onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and once full, off into the oven (170 Degrees Celsius) until golden brown.

 

My daughter just came home from school with a friend and both just started munching. I swear these are so easy to make and once you have tried them, you will NEVER, EVEEEERRRRRR buy them from a store again. I wanted them for my husband’s birthday tomorrow, but I think I will have to make some more.

Home made Grisini is no rocket science, just very nice to have a machine to help you knead. I have found that especially with yeast based breads, the amount of water depends also on the brand of flour and also the warmth and humidity of the day. As I can never know, which brand I will be getting here, and the weather being so unpredictable, I sorta wing it most of the time, I rely more on the feel and look of the dough, if it looks and feels right, it usually is.

 

Experiment with what you put into the dough, I think, tomorrow I will omit the cheese and just add garlic and rosemary