Grissini

For years I have been trying to find out the name of the super thin long crispy bread sticks that are served in Italian restaurants and finally last Friday I found out they are called 'Grissini'.  Immediately, I googled for grissini recipes and was amazed at how many recipes were available.  However, this one from the Los Angeles Times stood out as sounding relatively easy and I loved the associated picture.  Fast forward to Saturday afternoon when we decided to have a few friends over for dinner.  I decided to make a batch to go with the prosciutto and cheese plate we were planning (crackers were purchased just in case).

The dough came together easily but looked very dry but I allowed it to proof for an hour and to my surprise it had actually risen as planned.  The dough was very easy to roll out and I used a pizza cutter to make 4 dozen grissini (I need to work on making them a bit more even but as Mr.K said they looked more homemade)!

I sprinkled sea salt across all of the grissini and smashed up dried rosemary to a handful.  After a second proofing they puffed up a small amount and in the oven they went.  Th grissini baked up quickly and were crispy yet tender.  The sea salt and rosemary did not really stick so I will have to work on that next time  Our dinner guests showed up a few minutes after they cooled and were wowed by them (the crackers were not even touched)!  Most of the grissini were eaten through out the evening but here are a few pictures from Sunday morning.