This is a rather old-fashioned bread stick, not as slender and refined as a sleek grissini, but rather big and chunky, flavoured with mustard and onion. This dough is a great all-rounder, perfect for rolling thinly and baking into crisp flatbreads, or even as a top for a simple one-crust pie. Or do what some bars in Barcleona do, and slice them down the middle to make ever so thin cocktail sandwiches filled with Spanish ham or cheese.
150ml warm water
1 tsp (1/2 sachet) easy-blend yeast
225g strong white flour
3 tbsp (about 50g) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized onion, very finely chopped
2 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp fine salt
Mix the water with the yeast and 100g of the flour from the total amount in a warm bowl. Stir it until most of the lumps have gone then leave for 1 hour or until it triples in volume, though it's fine to leave it up to 3 - 4 hours if you need to.
Meanwhile cook the onion in the butter until soft and transparent and then leave to cool so that it doesn't scorch the yeast mixture. Toss the mustard powder, pepper and salt with the remaining 125g flour in a separate bowl. Next beat the buttery onion into the yeast mixture until combined then add the remaining dry ingredients and work this into a soft sticky dough. Scrape and remaining dough from the spoon and your fingers, then cover and leave for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C (same for a fan assisted), gas mark 6-7. On a lightly floured worksurface roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 20cm by 10cm. Cut long 20cm strips about 1-2cm wide from the dough then roll each on the worksurface until they measure 30cm long. Place on a large tray covered with non-stick baking parchment and leave for 15 minutes to puff slightly. Bake for 25 minutes or until crisp and golden. If you use the dough to make flatbreads, lower the oven temperature to 190C (180C in a fan assisted), gas mark 5, after 20 minutes and continue to bake until they dry out and crisp.
Variations:
1. Replace the onions with a few cloves of garlic finely chopped and cook in the butter
2. Use 4 heaped tsp grated Parmesan instead of the 2 tsp mustard powder
3. Chilli flakes or powder can be added, but remember the mixture will get spicier after its cooked as the oil in the chilli will then be released.
Whole baked breadsticks
A broken breadstick showing the crumb texture
