I am a bit of a salty snack-o-holic. Munch them absent minded in front of the TV or while reading a good book and then wondering what on earth has happened to the batch 10 minutes later. You might say I have a bit of a problem.. But never mind, I decided to have one of my favourite snacks available 24/7. Grissini that is.
Maybe it has got to do with growing up in Switzerland. A multicultural hub imbedded within the confederation and Italian culture being part of that. So I had to only drive a few hours being still in Switzerland but enjoying Italian lifestyle, food and language. Bliss – I am telling you. To this day, everything Italian just wins me over. I soooo love the food and Grissini as a snack is surely part of that.
Just imagine the middle of the summer, a hot day, cracking open a bottle of beer, sweat trickling down your body, a little twinge in your stomach and there they are – Grissini. Yum. I must confess, my homemade version is darn good, but not quite up to the original yet. I must keep on baking and tasting and baking and tasting…
The recipe I adapted, I’ve found on a German website (www.chefkock.de by IronyOfFate) and I really like that everybody there tries the recipes and leaves their comments. So any homebaker can benefit from other people’s experience before having tried it themselves yet.
Grissini
Ingredients:
125g all-purpose flour
125g semolina
10g fresh yeast
135ml fresh water
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Topping to your liking:
sesame seeds
poppy seeds
sea salt
parmesan
rosemary
herb mix
1. Dissolve the yeast in the water.
2. Combine flour, semolina, salt, olive oil and water-yeast mix.
3. Knead the mixture to a dough until smooth and elastic.
4. Cover and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
5. Knead again and roll the dough to a rectangle of about 0.5cm.
6. Divide in two similar sized parts.
7. Cover and leave another 10 minutes.
8. Cut in 0.5 – 1cm sized strips.
9. Roll the strip into a round shape and dip into your topping.
10. If the topping doesn’t stick you can brush some water onto the sticks.
Bake in a preheated oven of 200° roughly 15 minutes. Let them cool and enjoy.
Stored in a airtight tupperware, they should be crunchy up to a week, but honestly, they never last that long here. And should they loose some of their crispiness, just but them back into the oven for 5 minutes and the crunch is yours!
Make, shake and bake 