Chinese Candied Sesame Walnuts

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Chinese Candied Sesame Walnuts

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

This recipe is for fried candied walnuts. I prefer the Chinese method of frying candied walnuts (as opposed to toasted) as it promises an evenly thin coating of crackly syrupy sweetness around each walnut that toasting cannot achieve.

The ones in the picture above is a sweet, sour, salty and spicy version. You could choose to add other seasonings over the Candied Sesame Walnuts. 

The version here has a base flavour that is sugary sweet, with the chilli powder providing the necessary heat. There is a sprinkling of sea salt for the saltiness, and then there is a surprising underlying tartness that one would not expect from Candied Walnuts. Scroll down to the ingredient list for some suggestion of flavours you could add.

The walnuts pictured here are simply Candied Sesame Walnuts with no extra flavouring.

This recipe came about after frying numerous batches of walnuts to get them to my liking. It is not an easy recipe. They could not be too sweet and they had to be crispy and not gummy.  

The recipes with the least number of ingredients are usually the most difficult to get right as you cannot mask your mistakes under layers of seasonings. You pretty much have one shot at getting it right.

This recipe works for me. There are 4 key points you have to pay attention to:

• Do not over boil the walnuts
• Do not let the syrup boil past the light yellow shade before adding the walnuts 
• Do fry in hot oil (380F)(190C) and in multiple batches so the oil remains hot
• Do not fry the walnuts past the golden brown stage

CHINESE CANDIED SESAME WALNUTS                             

Prep:	5 minutes
Cook:	20 minutes
Inactive:	-
Level:	Bit of a challenge
Makes:	2 cups
Oil Temperature:	380 F (190 C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Keeps up to one week tightly bottled. They will keep better if you freeze them, tightly bottled.

Ingredients

3 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

2 full cups (7.05oz) (200g) walnuts
I use USA ready to eat baked walnuts

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

3 cups of oil (or enough to completely cover the walnuts for frying - be generous)

1 teaspoon freshly toasted sesame seeds

Optional - Any or a combination of the following:

For a sour note: Citric acid, mango powder, passion fruit powder

For a spicy note: Chilli powder/flakes, cracked black/white pepper

Other flavours:  Cinnamon, cumin, fennel, pumpkin spice mix, smoked salt, sea salt flakes

Method

You will be doing 3 steps simultaneously, so you will need to be organised and be ready to work fairly quickly.

Utensils to have ready:

• 3 cooking vessels/pots/frying pans

Have ready, 3 cooking vessels each with at least a 3" (7.5cm) depth. 

1. Wider vessel for deep frying, 
2. One for boiling the nuts and the 
3. Last vessel for making the syrup. Set all 3 vessels on three separate burners.

You are going to work with high temperatures.  Walnuts will cause hot oil and syrup to bubble furiously. You need a deeper vessel to prevent oil and syrup from bubbling over the vessel.

• 2 baking trays for draining/drying the walnuts
• 2 sheets of parchment papers or silpats or lightly oil the baking trays
• 2 slotted spoons, one for use when cooking the syrup and the other for deep frying
• 1 spoon for stirring the walnuts in water
• 1 colander for draining blanched walnuts
• Thermometer

In one of the vessel, bring the 3 cups of water to boil over high heat. 

At the same time, in the wider vessel, heat up 3 cups of oil to 380F (190) over high heat. It is best to secure a thermometer to the vessel so that you can monitor the temperature. Visually, the oil will be shimmering and if you look from the side, you will see a slight haze above the hot oil. 

Simultaneously, in the last vessel, heat up the 1/4 cup of water with the 3/4 of sugar over high heat.

Blanching 

Once, the water boils, add salt and bring it back to a boil. Once water comes back to a boil, add walnuts. Stir with a spoon and bring it back to a boil. The walnuts will turn a paler shade and the water will turn brown. Once it comes back to a boil, give it a final stir and turn off the burner. Remove the pot.

Drain immediately into a colander and rinse under running water until water runs clear. Leave it to drain in the colander.

Syrup

The sugar and water should be bubbling away at this time. Watch carefully. Once it turns a pale yellow (or starts to show a spot of yellow) and before it turns a golden colour, toss the walnuts into the sugar syrup and stir with a slotted spoon and coat the walnuts quickly. Using the slotted spoon, transfer to the oiled or parchment paper/siplat lined baking tray. Separate the nuts as well as you can to prevent excessive sticking.

Before you transfer the walnuts to the baking tray, take a quick look at the thermometer, if it registers, 380F (190C), transfer the walnuts to the oil instead. 

However, if you are making this for the first time, I suggest you sit the syrupy walnuts on the parchment paper to cool for a minute or so and to drain off excess syrup. As, if you are not adapt yet at draining off the excess syrup with your slotted spoon/strainer and directly transfer walnuts from syrup pan to oil pan, you will be throwing in a lot of syrup into hot oil. Not good.

The oil needs to be hot so don't overcrowd the pan. It will bring down the temperature and the walnuts will not fry up a crispy as they should. Fry in multiple batches if you have to.

Frying

Remember not to overcrowd the pan. Fry in multiple batches if you have to. They need hot oil.

With a clean slotted spoon, stir walnuts continuously in the hot oil to evenly cook it to a light golden brown colour. At such high temperatures, you must stir and it should take one minute, give and take 15 seconds for all the walnuts to turn a golden brown colour. Transfer to the oiled or parchment paper/siplat lined baking tray and separate them as best as you can.

Bear in mind that the nuts will continue to brown even after you remove them from oil so don't keep them in the hot oil too long. They burn quickly.

Whilst hot, sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds. 

These walnuts as is, with no other seasonings, will keep up to 1 week stored in an airtight container. They will keep better frozen, tightly bottled.

Tips

• If you want to season the walnuts further, I suggest you eat them up fairly soon as they will not retain their crisp texture for long. How long they stay crispy depends partly on the additional seasonings that you choose to add. 

• To prolong their crisp texture, it might be a better idea to add your additional seasonings just before you are ready to serve the walnuts.

• Do toast the sesame seeds before adding to the fried walnuts. Toasting makes them ever so flavourful. Should you realise you have forgetten to toast the sesame seeds after frying the walnuts, do not bother adding the sesame seeds. The sesame seeds will be tasteless without toasting and will provide no flavour to the walnuts. It would be too late to toast them as by the time you scamper off to toast them, the syrup coating would have harden. Remember to toast them the next time.

• These can be bottled up into pretty jars and given away. They do not stay long in a jar as it invariably gets consumed pretty quickly. Goes especially well with drinks - wine, champagne, beer, moscato.... You really don't need much of an excuse to eat them.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
This is very likely my last post for the year.

Like many of you, I need to get the year-end party meals planned, specialty food pre-ordered. I am so glad I already have the house all festively dressed. 

Would you believe I have all presents bought and wrapped?! I am 2 weeks ahead! That's only because I am going on vacation and when I return just before Christmas, I am expected to go into baking mode. 

I have no idea how I am going to churn out Checkerboard Cookies, Buttery Butter Cookies, Chocolatety Chocolate Cookies and Crisp Lemon Cookies in such a short span of time! That on top of cooking for the upcoming dinner parties. I will certainly be relying on some of my meze dishes to see me through all the dinners. You might find my meze recipes useful as they are easy to prepare and most can be made in advance. The list of 10 meze recipes is filed under, Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites. 

Happy Holidays! Stay safe!

Braided Stollen With Three Logs Of Marzipan

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Braided Stollen With 3 Logs Of Marzipan

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https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

This festive looking sweet bread is wonderful served over the holidays. You start seeing them being sold around the year-end as it is often associated with the Christmas season. 

Boozy dried currants, cranberries and sultanas plumped up by rum or brandy are mixed into a lightly spiced, butter and milk bread dough. A log of marzipan is often hidden into the dough before baking. For those eating Stollen for the first time, it's a pleasant treat to bite into a morsel of that sweet almond paste.

I was at the hairdressers flipping through the Christmas issue of BBC Good Food. They had a feature on an intriguing looking Stollen. There was not one but three logs of marzipan that had been enclosed in the loaf. It looked beautiful! 

I have not made Stollen in years and that pretty sweet loaf strewn with a handful of thin almond flakes and bathed in powdered sugar made me want to leap out of the hairdresser's chair and into a kitchen to try my hand at a braided Stollen. I really liked the idea. It ensures almost every other bite into a slice of Stollen has a nugget of marzipan. 

This recipe is an adaptation of BBC Good Food Spiced Stollen Plait. I had tried their recipe. My loaf was a bit too dense and dry. It could be because of the quality of the flours that are available to us.  I also wanted a richer tasting bread base. 

The recipe below is almost nothing like the original recipe. It bakes a plaited Stollen that is light and moist, and smells wonderfully boozy, fruity and not too heavy on the spices. 

It is best eaten on the day it is baked with a cup of black coffee. 
BRAIDED STOLLEN WITH THREE LOGS OF MARZIPAN   

Prep:	45 minutes
Cook:	25 to 30 minutes
Inactive:	First rise: Approximately 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours rising time Second rise: Approximately 30 minutes
Level:	Bit of a challenge
Serves:	8 persons
Oven Temperature:	380 F (190 C)
Can recipe be doubled?	No
Make ahead?	Tastes best on the day it is made. To keep until the next day, it must be tightly covered with plastic wrap to ensure the bread does not dry out.

Ingredients

4.23 oz (120 g) mixed dried fruits 

I use currants, sultanas and cranberries.

3 Tablespoons brandy, rum or orange juice

3 oz ( 85 g) unsalted butter

3 Tablespoons honey

8 oz (225 ml) (Just under 1 cup) room temperature water

1/4 cup beaten egg (1 large egg) and another small egg for glazing

1 lb (450 g) bread flour, plus extra for dusting

1/4 cup (1.41 oz) (40 g) nonfat dry milk powder

I use Bob's Red Mill Nonfat Dry Milk Powder. I buy this online as the taste is far superior to what I find on supermarket shelves. Omit this if you cannot find good quality nonfat dry milk powder. 

Substitute by replacing the water asked for with an equal amount of room temperature milk.

1 Tablespoon Vital Wheat Gluten

Vital wheat gluten is derived from the endosperm of the wheat berry and is added to help bake a loaf with more volume. 

Vital wheat gluten can be purchased at better stocked supermarket. I use Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten. This does come in a 1 lb 6 oz (623 g) bag. It is a large bag so keep sealed and refrigerated. I use it often in my wholemeal loaves. Take a look at my recipe for Moroccan Inspired Wholemeal Round Bread Loaves. It bakes beautiful, light wholemeal loaves with the addition of Vital Wheat Gluten.

1 Tablespoon and 1/4 teaspoon (10 g) instant yeast

I use SAF-instant.

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/4 teaspoon allspice powder

Instead of cinnamon and allspice powder, you could use nutmeg, mixed spice or whatever combination of spices that are traditionally used for sweet baking. Do not go beyond a collective total of 2 teaspoons of spices as it will not only get too overpowering, it might affect the rise of your bread. I like to go lightly on the spices.

zest of 1 lemon 

zest of 1 orange

11 oz (300 g) marzipan

1.76 oz (50 g) (Handful) flaked almonds

1 cup icing sugar for dusting

2 Tablespoons melted butter for brushing on loaf just out of the oven

Butter/Oil for greasing 

Method

Place dried fruits and the alcohol of choice or orange juice in a microwavable bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir and set aside to cool.

Heat the butter until it has almost completely melted. Remove from heat source, add honey, stir until butter completely melts, add water and set aside.

Using a mixer

Combine all the dry ingredients (except the flaked almonds and icing sugar) into mixer bowl. Attach dough hook to beater shaft. Start mixer at low speed to prevent the flour from flying out of bowl and all over the kitchen counter. You just want to mix the dry ingredients at this stage. With the machine running, add the lemon and orange zests to get them mixed in. Stop the machine.

Add the melted butter, honey, water and 1/4 cup of beaten egg. Start the machine on low speed and work it up slowly to medium high speed.

If the mixture seems dry and does not seem to be coming together to form a dough, with the machine running, add 1 Tablespoon of water and let the machine go at it for 1 minute. Work in more water the same way if required. Err on the side of a more moist dough. If there is dough stuck to the sides of the bowl. Scrape down.

If the dough is too wet, add 1 Tablespoon of flour and let the machine work it in for 1 minute. Add more flour the same way if required. Again, err on the side of a more moist dough.

Please note that this is a very wet and sticky dough. So hold off the flour as much as you can. Notice how sticky the dough initially looked and how it still looks tacky after kneading.

It usually takes 10 minutes of machine kneading before I am happy to shape the dough into a ball. At this point, the sides of my bowl would be relatively, though not entirely cleaned of dough and the dough would have gathered up on the hook. It would look pliable, smooth and would be tackier than most dough. 

You are working towards being able to gather up the dough to form a relatively smooth looking ball. As this is a sticky dough, do not flour but oil/butter your hands and a dough scraper.

Pick the dough up and form into a round ball. Tuck loose ends under the dough. Before returning dough to mixer bowl, oil/butter the bowl. Return dough to mixer bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until almost double in size. It might take anywhere between 1 and 1 and 1/2 hours, depending on how warm it is.

Working dough by hand

Place dry ingredients on a flat working surface or in a very large bowl. Stir to mix and then add the lemon and orange zests. Stir. 

Create a well in the centre of dry ingredients. Pour melted butter, honey, water and 1/4 cup of beaten egg into the well and work it in slowly into the dry ingredients. To start kneading, you have to work with pushing the dough out with the palm of your hand and pulling it back with your fingers.

At any point, if the dough is too dry or wet to work, you can add 1 Tablespoon of water or flour and work it in completely before adding more water or flour. Err on the side of a moist and not a dry dough. This is a very wet and sticky dough so your kneading surface would not be entirely cleaned of dough at any point. Use a buttered/oiled dough scraper to help you clean the kneading surface as you work. You might want to butter/oil your kneading surface if the dough gets too sticky. I would try to hold off the flour as you might end up with a dry Stollen.

You will know you are doing well when you find yourself working with a smooth elastic ball. Knead another 5 minutes.  Pick the dough up and shape into a round ball, tuck loose ends under the dough. Do not be tempted to add more flour. 

Oil/butter your bowl which should be large enough to allow the dough to almost double in size. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until almost double in size. It might take anywhere between one to 1 and 1/2 hours, depending on how warm it is.

After rising - time to divide dough, mix in dried fruit, shape dough and let it go through last rise

The dough will rise exponentially. Punch dough, knead lightly to knock off air and divide into three equal balls.

Drain excess alcohol or orange juice from the soaking dried fruits. Divide into three equal portions and work each portion of soaked dried fruit separately into a ball of dough. Try not to squash the dried fruit as you do so. It can be a little challenging so work with a light hand or the soaking liquid from the dried fruit will spill into the dough and it will be difficult to work with an increasingly wet dough. Do not over handle the dough balls. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, divide the marzipan into three equal pieces and roll each into logs approximately the length of the oven tray you will be using for baking. Set aside.

Roll each of the dough ball now mixed with dried fruits into long rectangles that can be used to enclose each log of marzipan. If the dough is difficult to stretch out, it needs to be rested for another 10 minutes. 

Place a log of marzipan on each rectangle piece of dough. Pinch and seal the sides well to enclose. You do not want marzipan seeping out during baking because the seams were not secured well enough.

Flip the dough so that the seam side faces down and pinch one of the 3 ends together.

Start plaiting tightly from this end, making sure seams don't burst as you do. Finish off plaiting and tuck both ends neatly underneath.

Transfer to baking tray that has been lined with parchment or a silpat. Leave a 2" (5 cm) room for expansion. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and not a kitchen towel as it might stick to the latter.

Let it rise for 30 minutes or until almost double its size. It will feel like a pillow if you gently tap on the sides of the loaf.

Baking

Heat oven to 380 F (190 C), oven rack positioned lower middle. When Stollen is ready for baking, uncover plastic wrap, brush with beaten egg, strewn over almonds and place into oven. 

After 15 minutes of baking, the tops should have browned. Cover with an aluminium foil to avoid burning the tops and continue baking for 10 minutes.

After that time, check the loaf by looking at the bottom of the loaf. It should be golden brown to brown. If you tap the base of the loaf it would sound hollow. Remove from oven if it has reached this stage. If not, leave it in the oven for another 5 minutes.  More often than not, 25 minutes baking time is sufficient. At times, 35 to 40 minutes.

Transfer the Stollen onto a cooling rack. With a pastry brush, brush the melted butter over the entire surface. Once the butter has soaked in, dust icing sugar over the still hot loaf. You want some of the icing sugar to melt into the bread. Buttering and sugaring helps to keep the Stollen moist. Reserve the rest of the icing sugar.

Cool the Stollen completely on a cooling rack. Do not be tempted to cut into it before it cools or the marzipan will ooze out. Not pretty.

To serve

When the Stollen has cooled completely and you are ready to plate and serve it, transfer to the serving vessel and dust completely with icing sugar. You can choose to pre-slice the Stollen before serving it at the table.

Cut Stollen into generous slices. Serve the sliced Stollen with any remaining uncut Stollen on the same serving vessel. Dust  a final time with icing sugar. Take to table.

Tips

• I like Stollen with an espresso. It also pairs well with sweet wines, dark sherry, port, brandy and rum.

• This makes a lovely gift to bring to a dinner party be it a pot luck or otherwise. I check with the dinner host/hostess beforehand to see if they would like me to bring a dessert that would be served after dinner. I would not bake this otherwise as it really tastes best on the day it is baked. Remember to bring extra icing sugar and a sifter so that you can dust the Stollen with more powdered sugar before serving. It will look prettier.

• I have baked a Stollen without alcohol. I used orange juice. It was lovely but I miss the boozy taste and smell of rum and brandy. If you opt for a non alcoholic Stollen, I suggest you get your hands on a non alcoholic rum emulsion and add a teaspoon or two to the orange juice. Orange juice and rum extract should total 3 Tablespoons. Read labels carefully as some rum emulsions contain trace amounts of alcohol.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
I can squeeze in another recipe before the upcoming vacation and festive preparations starts to overwhelm me. 

I am not doing well at all with the buying of presents and the Christmas baking. There is definitely going to be several Cheese Boards and Antipasto Platters served up at my dinner parties. It is such a help when the kitchen gets invariably busier! Visit that page if you want to find out how I keep sane in the kitchen.

So probably the last recipe from me until after Christmas are these addictive Candied Walnuts with an optional sprinkling of chilli powder and mango powder or sour salt for that slight tang that I am fond of. They might just as well be called Sweet, Spicy, Sour and Salty Walnuts! Goes well with those party drinks!

Cheese Board And Antipasto Platter

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Cheese Board And Antipasto Platter

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

Setting up a cheese board that doubles as an antipasto spread is a smart option when it comes to entertaining and especially when entertaining in larger numbers.

The cheese board cum antipasto platter could have almost anything you think your guests might enjoy eating. 2 or 4 kinds of cheeses, various cold cuts, fresh, dried, pickled or roasted fruits and vegetables, one or two varieties of nuts and some fresh or crisp bread. Use any food item that looks attractive, is tasty and relatively easy for diners to put on their plates and eat.

The extent of your spread depends on the number of guests your are having. One antipasto style cheese board would serve about 4 diners, maybe 6 but beyond that number having 2 cheese boards would probably be more practical so that no one needs to get accidentally elbowed whilst circling around the spread deciding what to put on their plates.

To the side, in little bowls could be 3 or 4 kinds of various jams, dips, chutneys and an interesting honey with subtle nuances that will still allow the taste of the cheese to shine. 

Above I have from left to right, a tapenade, a cranberry chutney that I made, clover honey - a mild floral tasting honey and lastly something spicy, a lime and chilli puree. I have covered the spectrum of sweet, savoury and spicy.

You will need a selection of crisp breads and biscuits to go with the cheese. If I have a blue cheese to serve, I really like to get those sultana biscuits. The strong cheese goes well with those sweet nuggets of sultanas on the crisp biscuits. I have at least one gluten free crisp bread for diners who are gluten intolerant. If you like the look of those Grissini/breadsticks you see in the top photograph, I have posted a recipe for that, Grissini, Breadsticks.

It helps if you label your cheeses and the dips/chutneys/jams that you will be serving. Cocktail sticks, strips of paper and glue /double sided tape are all you need.

Put out a few tried and tested cheeses, chutneys, cold cuts and then throw in one or two new ones for your guests to try.

Think along the lines of: Diversity, Appearance, Taste, and Texture.

As a rough guide, I decide what cheeses goes on my antipasto style cheese board by dividing the cheeses into 4 broad categories and then mixing and matching.

Hard to semi-hard cheese such as:

Parmesan, Comte, Manchego, Cheddar, Gouda, Emmentaler.

I like to slice hard cheeses beforehand so guests don't have to struggle with cutting it.

Blue cheese such as:

Blue Stilton, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Danish Blue.

Fruit or herb cheese such as:
A Melon and Mango Combination or Apricots and Almonds. I have seen an Apple, Cranberry and Cinnamon combination. Herb and Garlic as well. There is a lot to choose from.

Semi soft, soft  to fresh cheese such as:

Port Salut, Fontina, Brie, Camembert, Fresh Mozzarella, Ricotta. 

You could serve cheeses from just one category, country or region. You could also serve just one good cheese or choose to serve cheeses made from only one kind of milk. From the all familiar cow's milk or you could offer selections from ewe, goat or buffalo's milk.

Balance off your selection of cheeses with the cold cuts, fruits and vegetables. 

Remember to set out separate knives/ utensils for each cheese as you want clean flavours from each cheese.

It is fun setting it all up. You can get as creative as you like with the selection and pairing of the food items. It is almost impossible to set up a bad antipasto style cheese board. There is bound to be something on it that would appeal to your guests.

And while your guests enjoy their pre-dinner nibbles, you can work at a more leisurely pace in the kitchen to get your main meal out. That to me is easy entertaining.
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
A Stollen just in time for Christmas! I love the long logs of marzipan in them and those alcohol soaked fruits. Yum.

Grissini, Breadsticks

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Grissini, Breadsticks

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

These Italian breadsticks, grissini, are deliciously snappy on the outside and a little soft on the inside.  They are gentle on your teeth and not at all rock hard like some bread sticks can be.

Displayed attractively on a dining table, the long and slender grissini adds panache to a dressed table. Try making these for your upcoming festive spread. 

Serve them alongside cheeseboards, antipasto or wrap some parma ham around it. Use them as a dipping stick to dip into almost anything! Nutella is great!! 

I prefer the plain ones but my guests prefer the ones with a cheese coating. Those disappear faster than I can bake them!
GRISSINI, BREADSTICKS                                 

Prep:	10 minutes
Cook:	20 to 25 minutes
Inactive:	Approximately 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours rising time
Level:	Easy
Makes:	About 20 grissini
Oven Temperature:	400 F (200 C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Cheese coated grissini will not keep well. Plain breadsticks or those sprinkled with dried toppings like sesame or poppy seeds keeps well up to 5 days. Store in an airtight container.

Ingredients

For the dough

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose/plain flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast  
I use SAF Instant.

1 Tablespoons full cream milk powder
This gives the breadsticks flavour and prevents them from being rock hard. To substitute, replace 1/3 cup of the 1 cup of water called for below with fresh milk.

2 teaspoons sugar 

1 teaspoon salt 

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water 

For the cheese coating
(enough to coat half the recipe of dough, ~ 10 breadsticks)

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese or cheese of your choice
To make cheese coating easier to adhere, pulverised it in a food processor to a fine powder.

1 Tablespoon rosemary snipped tiny or replace with dried herb of your choice

Pepper and a little salt to taste (depends on how salty your cheese is) 

3 Tablespoons olive oil for coating

Method

Using a mixer

Combine all dough ingredients into mixer bowl and attach dough hook to beater shaft. Start mixer at low speed to prevent the flour from flying out of bowl and all over the kitchen counter. Work up to medium high speed gradually.

If the mixture does not seem to be coming together to form a dough, with the machine running, add 1 Tablespoon of water and let the machine go at it for 1 minute. Work in more water the same way if required. Err on the side of a more moist dough. If there is dough stuck to the sides of the bowl. Scrape down.

If the dough is too wet, add 1 Tablespoon of flour and let the machine work it in for 1 minute. Add more flour the same way if required. Again, err on the side of a more moist dough.

It usually takes 7 to 10 minutes of machine kneading before I am happy to shape the dough into a ball. At this point, the sides of my bowl would be relatively, though not entirely cleaned of dough and the dough would have gathered up on the hook. It would look pliable, smooth and a little tacky. 

You are working towards being able to gather up the dough to form a relatively smooth looking ball. So oil/butter your hands. The dough should feel slightly sticky to touch. Do not be tempted to over flour the dough. It might take you more or less kneading time before your dough reaches this stage.

Pick the dough up and form into a round ball. Tuck loose ends under the dough. Before returning dough to mixer bowl, oil/butter the bowl. Return dough to mixer bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or tea towel and let it rise in a warm place until almost double in size. It might take anywhere between 1 and 1 and 1/2 hours, depending on how warm it is.

Working dough by hand

Place dry ingredients on a flat working surface or in a very large bowl. Create a well in the centre of dry ingredients. Pour water into the well and work it in slowly into the dry ingredients. To start kneading, you have to work with pushing the dough out with the palm of your hand and pulling it back with your fingers.

At any point, if the dough is too dry or wet to work, you can add 1 Tablespoon of water or flour and work it in completely before adding more water or flour. Err on the side of a moist and not a dry dough. Your kneading surface should be clean with no dough stuck on it. 

You will know you are doing well when you find yourself working with a smooth elastic ball. Knead another 5 minutes.  Pick the dough up, oil/butter your hands if the dough is a little sticky (it should be a little sticky) and shape into a round ball, tuck loose ends under the dough. Do not be tempted to add more flour. 

Oil/butter your bowl which should be large enough to allow the dough to almost double in size. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or tea towel and let it rise in a warm place until almost double in size. It might take anywhere between one to 1 and 1/2 hours, depending on how warm it is.

After rising - time to shape

Turn on your oven to 400 F (200 C). One oven rack should be positioned at middle and the other oven rack positioned at lower middle.

When the dough has risen to almost double its size, stick your finger in flour and poke the dough slightly. It should leave the indentation you made. Punch dough down and without much kneading, transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and shape into a rough 3/4" (2 cm) thick rectangle.

If you want to coat half the breadsticks with cheese. Prepare the set up above. Olive oil in one tray and the rest of the coating mix in another.

My oven has a longer length compared to most oven. So I divide the dough into 20 strips by marking it with a bench scraper or knife. Do not cut through dough as yet. 

If you have an oven with a shorter length, then you have to divide the dough accordingly, my guess is 24 strips. 

Start off first by rolling out plain bread sticks.  Only use half of the dough as you want to keep the remaining half to coat with cheese.

Cut off one strip of dough at a time. Roll each strip to fit the length of your tray. Set the bread sticks about 3/4" (2cm) apart on a baking tray lined with silpat or parchment paper. Cover with a tea towel and let these plain breadsticks rise about 10 minutes before putting them in the oven.

To coat the remaining dough with cheese, similarly cut off one strip of dough at a time and roll them out to fit the length of your baking tray. Lift up the dough, and coat lightly with olive oil and then roll them in the cheese. Set them about 3/4" (2cm) apart on a baking tray lined with silpat or parchment paper. Cover with a tea towel and let these plain breadsticks rise about 10 minutes before putting them in the oven.

Baking

As soon as you finish rolling and coating the cheese breadsticks would be a good time to put the plain ones in the oven. Set the timer for 10 minutes. 

When the timer rings, rotate the baking tray with the plain breadsticks. Place the cheese breadsticks into the oven onto the lower oven rack. Set the timer for 10 minutes.

When it rings, check the plain breadsticks. Press on it. It should feel crisp with just a slight give. If it is not quite there, let it bake for another 3 to 5 minutes and retest. 

When the plain breadsticks are done baking, transfer them to a cooling rack. In the meantime,  transfer the cheese coated breadsticks to the middle oven rack and set the timer for 10 minutes. Watch that the cheese does not burn. As soon as they feel crisp when you poke it, remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.

Serve the cheese coated breadsticks immediately. Plain ones can be stored in airtight containers.

Tips

White or black sesame seeds. Poppy seeds. A little black mustard seeds. A mixture of fennel and white sesame seeds. These are just a few of the many ways you can top bread sticks. 

I like mine plain as I tend to serve them with a pate, alongside antipasto or with a cheeseboard. I don't like too many flavours clashing.

You top and serve them as you wish. Either way they will be good.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
A cheeseboard. Great for those upcoming parties.

Setting up a cheeseboard for your guests to enjoy while you attend to those last minute cooking details will keep your guests happy and you sane!