Whole Wheat Soft Italian Bread Sticks

This is a bread stick recipe that I adapted from one that I found at Food.com (recipe #104628) to make significantly healthier. These are now more nutritious, quicker to make and still flavorful. As I posted before, I LOVE my bread machine, which incidentally I got for free by redeeming Air Miles! These bread sticks are great for the whole family to round out a supper or as a snack by themselves or with a dipping sauce. We've dipped these both in Luc's Favorite Tomato Sauce as well as Catherine from Weelicious' Ranch Dip with yummy results.These homemade bread sticks are appropriate for children over 8 months.

Whole Wheat Soft Italian Bread Sticks

- 1 1/3 cup water, lukewarm
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tbsp gluten*
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp raw cane sugar (or white sugar)
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp Parmesan or grana padano, grated
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
 
Add ingredients to the bread pan of your bread machine in the order listed, making a well in the dry ingredients before adding the yeast. 

Select the 'dough' setting.

When the cycle is complete, remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and divide in half. Divide each half into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 5-6" rope.

Place 2" apart on greased cookie sheets, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes until doubled (for this part, I preheat my oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes to warm in and let them rise in there). 

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes, turning halfway through, until golden brown. 


* Makes 24 bread sticks
* Gluten (aka vital wheat gluten) helps the dough to rise. Can be purchased at health food stores, well-stocked grocery stores, and some bulk stores. 
* Freezes well.You can either freeze after baking, or you can freeze the dough after you remove it from the bread machine and upon thawing, just continue with the recipe. I usually freeze half the dough ball to bake later.

Staple Recipe: 50/50 Bread

After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which is an excellent read if you've never read it), I was inspired to try regularly making bread at home. I had tried making bread by hand using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day method before Luc was born, which worked great, but I had trouble sticking with it.


I didn't have great memories of my mother's attempts with her bread machine. It usually ended up with bread that if you dropped it on your foot you could injure yourself and that wasn't very tasty. So, I was surprised that Barbara Kingsolver's husband used the bread machine to make their bread in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. But, I figured it would be worth a shot. Turns out my mom still had that bread machine packed away, so I borrowed it. My first attempts were terrible. 


So I borrowed a bunch of books on bread machine baking from the library, and set to work trying to learn how to produce edible bread. Turns out it is possible to make really good bread from a bread machine and we haven't bought bread since I started using the machine 4 months ago. These two books: The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook and Whole Grain Breads by Machine or Hand were indispensable to me in becoming a bread machine convert. 


This half white, half whole wheat bread recipe is our daily bread. It took me a lot of tries to get it how we like it (like 15+!). It goes with everything and makes great toast. Please note that this bread is unsuitable for the delay timer setting. 

(I'm still working on a 100% whole wheat bread that isn't too heavy and also isn't too sweet tasting)

50/50 Bread

- 1 1/4 cups water, room temp
- 1 lg egg
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups bread flour (or Canadians can also use all-purpose)
- 3 tbsp dry buttermilk powder*
- 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp gluten*
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

 Place all of the ingredients in the pan, except yeast, in the order listed. Make an well with your finger in the dry ingredients and add the yeast. 

Set crust on medium and program for Basic (White) or Whole Wheat cycle (my mother's bread machine made it better on Whole Wheat Cycle, my new one works better on Basic; try both).

Remove immediately from pan when done. Let cool before slicing. Can also be frozen. 

* makes one 1 1/2 lb loaf

* you can find dry buttermilk powder and gluten (also called Vital Wheat Gluten) at bulk goods or health food stores as well as some better stocked grocery stores.