Garlic breadsticks

1. Let’s bake some bread together, I hear it brings people closer.

2. Garlic breadsticks are great as a snack for an evening and I have always wanted to learn the art of baking breads. This, folks, is how you give Dominos a run for their money.

3. Well, the first requirement is to find a good quality active dry yeast. It took me multiple attempts to get this part right, mostly because the yeast I got the first time wasn’t of very good quality.

4. Things to remember while dealing with yeast:

5. Buy a good brand. This experience tells me that local dry yeast is rarely good, at least in India. “Eagle” and “Blue bird” are the most recommended brands.
Make sure that you use warm water. Not hot, not room temperature. Warm.!
So basically, to activate the yeast:

6. Bring the water to a warm temperature.
Put the exact mentioned amount of yeast in it from the recipe. If you put less, your bread will not rise enough. If you put more, it will smell bad.
Add half teaspoon of sugar. This is the food for yeast. Come one, you can’t starve those poor guys.

7. Steps to follow:

8. 1. Take 3/4th cup warm water. Add dry yeast and sugar to it. Let it sit for about 15 minutes.
You will know the yeast is activated when you see bubbles on top of the bowl.

9. 2. Add 2 tsp melted butter, 1/2 tsp oregano seasoning, and garlic paste to the yeast mixture. Now add flour to it in parts (because you want the dough to be consistent). Knead till you get a soft dough.

10. 3. Make sure you knead this dough for at least 10 mins, to activate the gluten. You are done when the dough will get stretchy and soft.

11. While making bread dough, you can take water and add flour according to requirement to get the consistency right, or the other way round, start with flour and adjust the water. Personally, I prefer the former way.

12. 4. You have to wait for the dough to rise and become double its size. For this you can either keep it in a warm place for 2-3 hours or in the fridge for 16-24 hours. Cold fermentation allows for more complete hydration of starches and more gluten development allowing the flavor to develop more.

13. 5. Once the dough has risen, divide it into two equal parts. Make a round dough with very soft hands. Oil your hands before dealing with the dough for convenience. Let these two dough balls sit for another 10 minutes.

14. 6. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

15. 7. Spread corn meal (makai ka atta) on your station, where you are going to roll the bread. In case you don’t have cornmeal, you can use part wheat flour and rava mixture, but prefer corn meal.

16. You can use the rolling pin or your hands to flatten the dough. One side of your flattened dough will be covered in cornmeal.

17. 8. Fold the round dough to a semi-circle, while keeping the cornmeal dusted side outside.

18. 9. Grease the bottom of the tray with butter and dust with some oregano seasoning.

19. 10. Place your semi-circle on the tray and place cuts in the semi-circle with a knife. You don’t have to cut all the way, though.

20. 11. Butter the top part very generously and sprinkle oregano seasoning.

21. 12. Place the tray in your oven. Bake for 7-8 minutes at 180°C and then for about 5 minutes at 220°C or until your bread crust is golden.

22. Voila..! Garlic bread sticks are ready. Serve with cheese spread.!