Garlic Bread Sticks using an Electric Breadmaker

Ever since we have had an electric breadmaker in our lives, I’ve been diligently baking bread at home and shunning commercial breads most of the time. The breadmaker breads tend to be a little dense but make for nice and chunky tawa-toasts that taste wonderful with toppings of tomato slices, melted gouda cheese and freshly crushed pepper, among more. I’ve been varying the mix of flours and seeds for my breads and enjoying creating breads at home instead of running around harried for branded breads from outside.

An electric breadmaker bread isn’t for everyone though. If you like evenly cut, soft slices of sandwich bread like my son, then you must continue looking towards the Harvest Gold fare. If you’re like my husband, however, who loves the smell of home-baked bread and likes to slice his breakfast bread slice from a big loaf of bread, then go ahead and consider an electric breadmaker… And, if you’re like me who loves to dip her soft chunky bread into a mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then you must definitely check out these soft garlic bread sticks that are made with a combo of the electric breadmaker and our convection oven and taste really good.

Here’s the way to make them.

Making and rising of the dough in the Breadmaker:

1. Put the following items in the breadmaker in the order they are listed

. Tepid water – 1 cup
. Olive oil – 3 tbspns
. Brown sugar – 2 tbspns
. Salt – 1 tsp
. Wheat+white flour (maida) in 1:2 ratio – 2-3/4 cups
. Fast action dry yeast – 1 tsp

2.  Use the breadmaker’s setting for making just the dough (the process takes 1-1/2 hours in mine wherein the ingredients are mixed and the yeast helps the dough to rise)

Rolling the dough:

3. Sprinkle some dry flour on the kitchen counter
4. Take out the risen dough from the machine
5. Take out about half of the dough and give it a round shape
6. Roll it into an oval in the size that your oven/baking tray can take
7. Put slits on the rolled dough while leaving its outer rim intact
8. Oil a baking sheet and place the rolled dough on it; it will be about 1 cm fat
9. Brush the dough with a mix of melted butter and olive oil
10. Cover it with a damp cloth and keep it in a warm place for 30 minutes to rise some more

Baking:

11. After about 15 minutes, preheat your convection oven to 200 degrees
12. Uncover the rolled-and-risen dough after 30 minutes and bake it at 200 degrees for 10-12 minutes (I baked for 10 minutes)
13. Take the tray out of the oven, let it cool and work on the garlic glazing

Glazing:

14. Add the following items to a small frying pan in the order they are listed:

. 1 tbspn butter
. 3 tbspns extra virgin olive oil
. 12-15 cloves of chopped garlic
. 1 tsp crushed pepper
. 1 thinly sliced green chilli
. 1 tbspn chopped fresh basil or parsley
. A dash of dried mixed herbs

15. Let it all sizzle over 1 minute

16. Switch off the flame and spoon this mix on the baked sticks

17. Sprinkle some grated cheese

18. Cover the sticks for about 5 minutes for flavours to seep in

19. Then, enjoy these soft sticks with a mix of

. 1 tbspn of extra virgin olive oil
. 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar
. Some crushed red chilli flakes
. ¼ tsp of oregano

And do tell me, how you found them.

Notes:

1. I used the rest of the dough to bake a large pizza. You can do the same or bake another round of garlic bread sticks.

2. My breadmaker is Lloyd. I’d be keen to know of other brands being used in India to see how different they are.

3. I’ve adapted this recipe from one I found at Flavours of Mumbai and have to agree that Maria’s sticks look much better than mine. All the same, mine taste good too 🙂