Olive Garden Breadsticks

Recipe inspired by Breadsticks in James Beard’s Beard on Bread
This is NOT the Olive Garden recipe, but used to describe how the breadsticks come out, texture wise.
(For example, these are not Pizza Hut style breadsticks).
[For the record, these are WAAAAAY better than Olive Garden breadsticks]

Makes 8 breadsticks

In bowl:

2.5 tsp yeast
2.5 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/8 c oil
3/8 c warm water

Mix well, let proof in bowl for 3 min.

Add:

3/8 c warm water
2 c flour

Alternate flour and water until you have a loose dough.

Knead for a few minutes until springy (like rotli dough).

Dough should be soft but not sticky. Add just enough flour for dough to not be sticky. The amount of flour to get to this point may be less or more than that stated above.

Let dough rest for 5 min under towel.

Cut dough into 8 pieces the same size.

Let rest 5 min under towel.

Get pan ready:

I use a nonstick pan and cover it with a silpat.

Coat lightly with yellow corn meal (around 1/4 c).

Get oven ready: heat to 175 F and then turn off.

Make breadsticks:

Take the 8 pieces, roll them into a log the same height as your pan.

Place breadsticks on prepared nonstick pan with silpat and corn meal.

Place in warmed oven to rise for 20 min.

Make garlic butter.

Mix:

1 stick butter, chopped and melted in microwave for 30 sec
3 cloves garlic, shredded
1/2 tsp salt

Take breadsticks out of oven. They should be slightly poofy.

Preheat oven to 300 F.

Using kitchen brush, brush breadsticks liberally with garlic butter. Be careful not to deflate the poof. The poof makes your breadsticks light and airy instead of hard and chewy.

Sprinkly with:

Italian seasoning
Parmesan cheese

Bake for 20 min, check. Add another 5 min to make breadsticks cooked and barely light brown. Add another 5 min to make breadsticks dark brown and crunchy (I did not do this!).

I like the breadsticks after 25 min in the oven, their taste and texture is like Olive Garden breadsticks (but so way better).

Enjoy!

Note: If you have leftovers, wrap in aluminum foil. When you want to eat them, take the wrapped and covered breadsticks (like when you’re making a baked potato) and place in a 300 F oven for five minutes or so. The breadsticks will come out almost like they were freshly baked.

You can freeze unused breadsticks too, then reheat as above in foil. These take like an hour to make including bake time, so I’m not sure why you’d freeze them instead of baking them fresh. But just so you know you can.

Note2: Recipe doubles well.

Note3: You can make bigger loaves instead of the small stick size for small sandwich bread. Bake time will increase, I don’t know how much. I think making three loaves from the above recipe should cook in around 45 min or so. This is all a guesstimate, YMMV.