Victor’s making homemade pasta, so I decided to make some breadsticks. My first thought was a loaf of crusty bread, but we’ll be having one of those on Tuesday with our Crab Cioppino.

Yes, our Christmas Eve tradition continues… I already have the Dungeness crab and most of the other seafood. I’ll pick up the clams tomorrow.

It has been a really long time since I made breadsticks . This recipe is really easy – it’s a dump, mix, rest, roll, and bake. Not a lot of thought has to go into it.

I really like using a scale and weighing out ingredients, but… not everyone does, so I’ve included both weights and volume measurements. My advice is to get a scale and learn metric.

Really.

Breadsticks

• 380 g (2 3/4 cups) bread flour
• 3 gr (1 tsp) active dry yeast
• 190 ml 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 65 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
• 30 g (2 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled
• 7 gr (1 tsp) salt
• olive oil, sesame seeds, grated cheese

Place everything in a mixing bowl and mix until well combined – about 3 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes.

Increase speed to medium and mix for another 5 minutes. Cover bowl and let rise for an hour at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 375F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.

Divide dough into 16 pieces, each weighing about 40g. Roll each piece into a thick pencil shape about 10″ long. Brush with olive oil and roll in cheese or sesame seeds.

Place on sheet pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until light golden and crisp rotating pans halfway through. Cool and enjoy!

I made two different kinds, but you can do one or the other -= or leave them plain.

Really simple, really basic, and a nice crunch!