Soft Gluten Free Breadsticks | Olive Garden Style
Just like the garlic breadsticks at Olive Garden, these gluten free breadsticks are pillow-soft inside with savory garlic butter all over, and a thin, crisp shell that shatters when you bite into them.
Yield: 12 breadsticks
Equipment
Ingredients
For the bread dough
- 4 ¼ cups (595 g) gluten free bread flour (click thru to the must-use gf bread flour blend) plus more for sprinkling
- 2 teaspoons (6 g) instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons (24 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons (12 g) kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 ⅜ cups (11 fluid ounces) warm water (about 95°F)
For the garlic butter
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
Make the dough.
- Place the gluten free bread flour, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer, and use a handheld whisk to combine well. Add the salt, and whisk to combine.
- Add the butter and water, and mix on low speed with the dough hook until combined.
- Raise the mixer speed to medium and knead for about 5 minutes. The dough will be quite sticky, but should be smooth and stretchy.
- Spray a silicone spatula lightly with cooking oil spray, and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Shape the dough.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth by sprinkling very lightly with more gluten free bread flour and turning it over on itself gently.
- Divide the dough into 12 pieces of equal size (each about 3 1/2 ounces).
- Working with one piece at a time (covering the other pieces with a moist tea towel when you're not working with them), shape into a round, then pat into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick and about 4 inches long.
- Fold the rectangle along the length halfway, from bottom to top, and top to bottom. Fold the smaller rectangle now in half, each side just folded over one another.
- Roll the dough back and forth on the lightly floured surface to seal the edges well, and to elongate it slightly until the dough is about 7 inches long, tapering the dough on both ends.
- Place the shaped dough on the prepared baking sheet, each piece about 2 inches apart from the other.
Let the dough rise.
- Once all the breadsticks are shaped, cover the baking sheet with oiled plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free location to rise until the breadsticks are nearly doubled in size (about 1 hour, depending upon the environment).
- About 25 minutes before the dough has finished rising, remove the plastic and preheat your oven to 375°F.
Bake the rolls.
- Once the breadsticks have finished rising, remove the plastic, place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 350°F. Bake for 5 minutes.
- While the breadsticks are baking, melt the butter for the garlic butter in a small, microwave-safe bowl or in a small saucepan. Mix in the garlic salt.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and brush each breadstick generously with the garlic butter.
- Return the breadsticks to the oven and continue to bake until they are lightly golden brown all over (about another 5 minutes).
- Remove the breadsticks from the oven and brush again with garlic butter. Serve immediately.
Notes
From the book Gluten-Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread: Biscuits, Bagels, Buns, and More by Nicole Hunn. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2013.