I kind of think these easy homemade breadsticks have actual magical powers. Seriously. These bad boys have helped me make instantaneous friends at church functions when I’m the new girl and made sad people happy. They’re easy to whip up and even easier to customize. Garlic bread seasoning? Yes. Cinnamon sugar twists? Yes. There’s nothing that’s not great on a warm twisty breadstick. This is also fantastic as homemade pizza dough! If you’ve got a backyard pizza oven, you should also check out my Neapolitan Style Crust, which is my go-to for home pizza ovens.
I use this basic recipe for so many things–pocket sandwiches (like Hot Pockets, only not gross), breakfast pocket sandwiches, pizza crust, pizza on the grill, pizza pockets, whatever. One major advantage is that this dough is very, very forgiving. If you’re just getting started, we recommend, checking out these tips on how to work with yeast dough, but this is a great dough to start with if you’re a yeast dough virgin or if you’ve had bad experiences working with yeast in the past.
how to make them
To get started, you’ll need some yeast, sugar, and warm water. The water needs to be about 105-115 degrees F, which you can measure with a thermometer if you want, but I always say water hot enough that would feel like a hot shower but not so hot you wouldn’t want to wash your hair or your face in it. If it’s not warm enough, the yeast won’t activate and if it’s too hot, the yeast will die. The sugar feeds the yeast.
In a large bowl (the bowl of your mixer, if you have one), combine water,
sugar, and yeast.
Let stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly.
Add salt
and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour
and mix well. Gradually add more flour (usually between 3-4 cups, depending on your elevation and your humidity) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl
and it barely sticks to your finger.
Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
before
after
While the dough is rising, line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Remove from bowl and place on a surface sprayed with cooking spray. Roll into a rectangle and cut into 12 strips with a pizza cutter.
Roll out each piece of dough into a snake about 18″ long, then drape the middle of the “snake” over your forefinger
and twist the dough.
Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining 11 pieces of dough. Try to space them evenly, but it’s okay if they’re close; pulling apart hot bread is one of life’s greatest pleasures!
Cover pan and allow dough to rise for another 30 minutes.
When there’s about 15 minutes to go, preheat your oven to 425. When done rising, bake for 12-15 minutes (it will depend on your oven) or until golden on top.
Rub some butter on top of the breadsticks (just put a ziploc bag on your hand, grab some softened butter, and have at it) and sprinkle with garlic bread seasoning
or the powdery Parmesan cheese in a can and garlic salt (or you could sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar. I did that once. It was awesome). If you’d like, you can serve with marinara for dipping.
They’re amazing hot, but I’m not gonna lie, they’re also pretty amazing at 11 pm when your kids are in bed and you’re pondering the meaning of life in the dark in the kitchen.
Breadsticks
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup warm 105-115 degrees water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon yeast
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3-4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- Butter
- Garlic Bread Seasoning
Instructions
- In a large bowl (the bowl of your mixer, if you have one), combine water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly.
- Add salt and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour (usually between 3-4 cups, depending on your elevation and your humidity) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and it barely sticks to your finger.
- Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk. While the dough is rising, line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
- Remove from bowl and place on a surface sprayed with cooking spray. Roll into a rectangle and cut into 12 strips with a pizza cutter.
- Roll out each piece of dough into a snake about 18″ long, then drape the middle of the “snake” over your forefinger and twist the dough. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining 11 pieces of dough. Try to space them evenly, but it’s okay if they’re close; pulling apart hot bread is one of life’s greatest pleasures!
- Cover pan and allow dough to rise for another 30 minutes.
- When there’s about 15 minutes to go, preheat your oven to 425. When done rising, bake for 12-15 minutes (it will depend on your oven) or until golden brown. Rub some butter on top of the breadsticks (just put a ziploc bag on your hand, grab some softened butter, and have at it) and sprinkle with garlic bread seasoning or the powdery Parmesan cheese in a can and garlic salt.
Notes
Serving suggestions:
- Omit garlic bread seasoning and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar; dip in cream cheese frosting
- Serve alongside homemade pizza sauce for dipping
Questions & Reviews
So I love the summer weather and cooking over the fire. We decided to try mini pizzas this weekend and they worked great! I used this pizza recipe dough, let it raise and rolled it into mini-pizzas (about 5 in. diameter). We then pre-cooked the crusts for about 10 minutes until they were done but still not golden. Then we packed up our car and took PLENTY of pizza toppings including BBQ chicken, grilled onions and peppers, artichoke hearts, bacon, and even cream cheese and apples for a dessert pizza. When we got to our camp site we each made our own little pizza, wrapped them in tin foil, and stuck them in the fire for a few minutes. These were delicious. By pre-cooking the bread, we only had to wait for the cheese to melt and they turned out amazing. Everyone loved them and we’re excited to have this as a new choice for our campouts.
I have recently found your blog and LOVE your recipes! I tried these bread sticks today and they did not turn out well for me. :(. They weren’t soft at all. They were hard and stiff. Do you think I put in too much flour? I am a pretty experienced cook but for some reason yeast breads never turn out right for me! I really want to give these another try.
Hi, Leigh! What a bummer. It does sound like you probably used too much flour. Seriously, it’s better to have too little than too much. You want it so it’s pulling away from the sides of your bowl and barely sticks to your finger. I hope you try them again! 🙂
I am making these breadsticks right now and hope to try the recipe for pizza dough as well. Could you tell me approximately how big of a rectangle you rolled out or the thickness of the rectangle and about how big the breadsticks are pre- twisting? Mine seem kind of skinny…but they’re on the second rise so hopefully they’ll plump up. Thanks!
I was disappointed with these. I am a veteran bread maker – I make all of our bread from scratch – even hamburger and hot dog buns. So I should have known that only 1/2 tsp. of salt was not near enough for 3+ cups of flour (I ended up using 3.5 so it was really lacking). I want to try them again – only this time I will start with 1 1/2 tsp. of salt (3 times as much!) which is what I use for my loaf bread with 3c. flour. That should make a marked improvement – as it was, for us, these were bland.
Tried this yesterday, but I think I made some error in measuring the flour. Yeast was all bubbly, but I left it lot longer than 10 mins. I measured exactly 4.5 cups of all-purpose flour. I did everything as the recipe asked. But the 4.5 cup of flour wasn’t enough. The dough kept on sticking to my hand. I am very new to this and while measuring the flour I used a tip from another recipe (sugar cookies which turned out lovely) – never scoop flour with a measuring cup, always use a normal spoon to fill the measuring cup and level it off with a knife. Could it be the reason, that I accidentally used less flour? I couldn’t even roll it nicely and I had to use more floor. Also to stop the stickiness I even used some olive oil too. However I managed to make 8 rolls and they were ok :(.
Made these last night – husband and kids loved them! Super easy, although the hardest part was mixing the dough in my Bosch mixer (too big for a small amount of dough! Had to keep stopping to mix it together by hand). If I doubled the recipe next time to allow my mixer more to work with, could I freeze half the dough? Before or after first rise? How would I work with it later? Thanks for your help!
Hey, Allyson! I’m so sorry I’m just getting back to you! Yep, you could definitely double this and freeze the other half. When you’re ready to use the frozen portion, just place it on the counter first thing in the morning and by the time you’re ready for dinner, the dough will be perfect. Hope that helps!!
I just made these tonight for dinner with pasta! YUM! YUM! YUM! I am in heaven! (And so is my husband!) Thanks so much for the great and super easy recipe! I didn’t know those two words could exist together in a bread recipe! I told my husband I wanted your recipe book for Mother Day! I can’t wait to get it!
I just made this recipe into the cinnamon sugar version…. now I just need the sweet cream recipe that the Pizza factory serves them with….
My husband has been craving breadsticks and ceasar salad, but my breadstick recipe is really involved. I am totally switching to this one so his craving can be satisfied. 🙂
They look and sound wonderful!
I wish it was not such a “cool” day here, or I would make these.
I am afraid it is to cool for the dough to rise. 🙁