Grissini

Wanted something savoury and crunchy to serve alongside a glass of wine at the book launch, and thought grissini might be nice. Started with a batch of sourdough starter from the new regimen, using the leftover leaven from the weekly pizza bake. Vigourously stirred 500 grams of bread flour, 350 millilitres of water, and the starter to make a sticky dough. After a quick knead on the oiled benchtop, left the dough to rise overnight at room temperature. Separated the dough into two balls the following morning, coated with each oil then rolled each ball in seeds (about a quarter cup each of caraway, fennel, brown mustard, nigella, & poppy seeds) and cracked pepper (about 2 teaspoons – go easy on the pepper). Rolled each ball of dough into a rectangle roughly 1 centimetre thick. The seeds prevented the dough from sticking to the rolling pin, and the rolling action embedded the seeds in the crust of the dough. Used a pizza cutter to slice lengths roughly 1 centimetre wide and 5 centimetres long, and arranged the sticks on three large, paper-lined baking trays. Rested the grissini for 30 minutes, before baking at 200°C for 25 minutes, shaking, rearranging, and turning occasionally so the strips baked evenly, then cooled on wire racks.