Grissini Recipe - Those Thin Crispy Breadsticks at Italian Restaurants

Leave the fluffy breadsticks to Americanized chains like Little Caesars and Olive Garden. Grissini are those fun, long, crispy-crunchy breadsticks served in more authentic Italian restaurants. They’re naturally dairy-free and even vegan-friendly, and are fun and easy to make, even for novice bakers.

There’s a lot of opportunity to play with the dough in this recipe, which is basically pizza dough. And it makes A LOT of thin crispy breadsticks. If you don’t need 64 grissini, you can actually refrigerate half the dough and make pizzas with it! This recipe was originally shared with us by Susan Tenney back in 2007, but we’ve since updated it!

Special Diet Notes: Grissini – Thin Italian Breadsticks

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.

Grissini (Crispy Thin Italian-Style Breadsticks)

Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

50 mins

This recipe is adapted from Baking Illustrated, a cookbook by the editors of Cook's Illustrated.

Author: Susan Tenney

Recipe type: Bread

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 64 bread sticks

Ingredients

623 grams (5 cups) flour
6½ grams(2 teaspoons) instant yeast
9 grams (1½ teaspoons) salt
397 grams (1⅔ cups) water, room temperature
28 grams (2 tablespoons) olive oil, plus additional for brushing
Toppings, such as sea salt, coarsely-ground pepper, or chopped fennel seed (optional)

Instructions

Add the flour, yeast, and salt to the bowl of a large food processor, and pulse a few times to combine.
Combine the water and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a liquid measuring cup. With the processor running, add the liquid to the dry ingredients in a steady stream.
Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 90 seconds.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled large container. Cover the container and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1½ to 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 350°F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Divide the dough into four equal pieces.
On a floured surface, roll one piece of the dough out into a rectangle about 12 x 8 inches. Cut the dough into 16 strips of equal width. A pizza cutter works very well for this. Fold each strip over on itself (this makes it stronger). On an unfloured surface, roll each strip into a long snake. Make it a bit longer than the length of your baking sheet, to allow for spring-back. Place the snakes evenly spaced across the width of the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat this step with the 3 remaining dough pieces.
Lightly spray or brush the grissini with olive oil. Sprinkle on any desired toppings.
Bake the grissini for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove the grissini to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

No Food Processor? If you don't have a large food processor, you can whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, mix in the wet ingredients, and bring the dough together with your hands as it becomes thick. Knead it until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 breadstick Calories: 39 Fat: .5g Saturated fat: .1g Carbohydrates: 7.4g Sugar: 0g Sodium: 55mg Fiber: .3g Protein: 1g