Sourdough Breadsticks (Grissini)

Grissini are crispy Italian breadsticks and they are not only very easy to make they’re another perfect use for your sourdough starter.

Remember the good old days when we could still eat out at a restaurant? My husband and I always preferred being seated at the pizza counter or the bar over getting a table in the main dining room. At a couple of our favorite spots jars of tall, skinny, crispy grissini always lined the counter and were the perfect thing to nibble on while we sipped our wine and waited for our meal. I have a feeling that these types of bar snacks will no longer be available post-Covid (so all the more reason to make them at home).

Grissini are different than their popular American counterparts that come with unlimited refills at that one popular restaurant in that the latter are soft, plump, doughy logs. There’s nothing wrong with them–they’re just different than the breadsticks pictured here. Grissini are said to have originated in Turin in the 17th century and growing up in San Francisco with a thriving Italian community the thin, crispy variety are the ones I learned to love and immediately think of when I hear breadsticks. My introduction to their proper Italian name happened by way of a local Italian specialty food store whose owners couldn’t stock the shelves enough to meet demand. Their grissini came in two varieties–plain and seasoned–and they sold out every day.

How to Prepare Grissini

My husband loves these Italian-style breadsticks so I’ve made a few batches over the years. A baker in Turin might beg to differ and I’m certainly no authority but looking at available recipes online, there are countless ways to prepare them. No two recipes are alike and this is part of their beauty.

The most common denominators are to use a little sugar (which I omit) and fat (olive oil) and to work with a dough with a lower water content which aids in achieving the coveted crispy texture. They’re typically served plain, mildly salty or infused with rosemary but the flavor options are limitless. I’ve come across recipes that are mixed by machine, some by hand, leavened with commercial yeast, a few not leavened at all–of course my choice is always to put my wild, yeasty pets to work.

All this is to say that you can’t get this recipe wrong so try not to focus on the exact amounts I provide below–or the method either. Use it as a guide or if nothing else, as just another recipe suggestion for your sourdough starter. Have fun with it.

My Method

I didn’t follow a recipe. In fact, I hadn’t even planned on sharing these breadsticks on the blog. I took these pictures with my phone intending to share only on my Instagram account but surprisingly, I received quite a bit of interest so here we are.

I used starter that was fed the day before and added flour and water according to the normal hydration percentage I use for my sourdough loaves (~80%). This makes for a wetter dough but feel free to decrease the water and use the lower amount I list in the recipe.

Again, there’s not one right way to make grissini but the easiest thing to do is to mix all the ingredients together, knead in the bowl for a couple of minutes then let rest for a few hours, turn out on counter, cut into strips and shape.

My method is not harder but since I like a wetter dough (which would make kneading at the early stage a challenge) and I couldn’t decide between chopped olives and dry seasonings to incorporate into the dough, I left it alone for a few hours (as if in autolyse stage). When I finally decided to use a dry seasoning mix to flavor the breadsticks I incorporated it through one stretch and fold session and used two coil folds to help make the dough more manageable since I didn’t knead after the mixing stage. If you’re new to using sourdough starter and are still learning these terms, don’t be intimidated. Here’s a video showing stretch-and-fold and here’s a video showing coil folds. Are these techniques necessary? Not at all but they’re part of my flow with sourdough bread these days so this was the natural course for me to take–I promise they’re very easy.

Flexibility in Preparation

As I mentioned earlier, use less water if you would feel more comfortable with a drier dough. Use more olive oil, or less. Knead with a machine or knead by hand. Wait a few hours or shape after kneading. It’s completely up to you.

What I do recommend if you plan to incorporate seasonings or other add-ins like herbs, seeds, cheese or olives is to mix them in the dough rather than sprinkling them on top before you shape the grissini. Toppings have a hard time sticking to the shaped breadsticks and they tend to burn. Mixing the add-ins into the dough lends more flavor.

How to Shape the Breadsticks

There are several ways to shape the breadsticks.

1. Roll the dough flat on your work surface, divide into strips, twist and bake.
2. Divide the dough into little balls and roll into long skinny ropes and bake.
3. If you cut your strips too thin you can fold in half and twist to make a thicker rope and bake.

My dough was light and airy, though wet, so I cut it into strips and sprinkled a liberal amount of flour on top of the dough and also on the counter and used a combination of the methods above. Really, have fun with the process and don’t be afraid to use extra flour.

Tip: A pizza cutter makes easy work of dividing the dough.

Baking Time and Temperature

Finally, the main characteristic of grissini is their crispy texture. You want to be able to hear that satisfying snap when you bread a stick in two. The key is to not to make them too thick or too thin and also to bake them long enough without burning them. It’s to be expected that your grissini, like mine, will not be uniform in length or thickness. Mine were between 12-14 inches long and on average 1/2 – 2/3 of an inch in diameter. Use the baking temperature in the recipe as a starting point but since your grissini might be a different size and depending on your oven, watch the heat and time carefully until you see what will work best for your grissini. If your grissini are thinner use less time and if they’re thicker, bake them a little longer.

Truthfully, even if you don’t get a perfectly crispy breadstick you’ll still be happy with the results. Just keep playing with the recipe until you get it exactly the way you like it.