Artisian Cheezy Bread Sticks

I am so loving Artisian Breads right now.  Super easy!  Super yummy!

The latest is a Savory Brioche dough that is made into Cheezy Bread Sticks.  Heavenly!

I even snuck in some cooked Quinoa to increase the healthy factor.  No one knew except me and they were gobbled all up!  Hooray for sneaky nutrition! So here's the how to:

Savory Brioche

In a container that has a sealable lid combine the following:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp yeast

1 - 1 1 /2 Tbsp kosher salt

6 eggs lightly beaten

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

6 1/2 cups flour

1 cup cooked quinoa (optional)

Mix until just combined in container with wooden spoon.

 It shouldn't have any dry patches, but don't work too hard.  Just enough to combine the ingredients.

At this point you can use this dough right away, but I'm going to let it rise for a few hours.

 Cover the container with it's lid but don't seal.

 After about 2 hours, seal the lid and put container in the fridge until ready to use.

 When ready, pull out about a 1 lb section of dough.  This batch made 3 - 1 lb pieces.  Roll out on floured surface.  I put mine on parchment to save on clean up.  Roll out to a rectangle or as close as you can.  Mine's kind of oval-ish.

Brush top with olive oil then sprinkle with Parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Press cheese into dough.  Flip the dough over and repeat oil and cheese.  Cut with pizza cutter into strips.

 Twist each piece to make sticks.

 Cover with plastic wrap while you pre-heat the oven.  About 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

I baked mine on my pizza stone.  You could also use a cookie sheet, adjust cooking times as needed.

 Bake for 20 minutes, Turn breadsticks over and bake for another 5 minutes.
You could brush with melted butter again if you want, but they can stand on their own.

Let cool slightly and serve.

Light. Flaky. Perfect!

Artisan Pizza Dough

I am so loving this whole Artisan dough thing.  I make the bread all the time, it's especially our favorite when we go camping because I can make the dough before we leave, then that night we have fresh hot bread with our dutch oven dinner.  But I wanted to try pizza dough.  This recipe is great because you make it ahead of time, then just pull out as much dough as you want for that night's dinner and leave the rest in the fridge.  SO easy!  There are a bunch of recipes I'm going to share but since I'm on a whole grain kick right now this version is whole wheat.

100% Whole Wheat Artisan Pizza Dough

This seriously only took about 10 minutes, which included grinding the wheat, and cleaning up all the dishes. Really, who doesn't have 10 minutes to  spare for some yummy pizza!  It takes longer than that to order it and pick it up from the pizza place.

Grind 3 cups hard white and 3 cups hard red wheat, you can add any other grain you want like quinoa, spelt, teff, or amaranth.  You will need a total of 7 cups of flour.

In your mixer, or just mix in the container, combine:

3 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp Yeast

1- 1 1/2 Tbsp Kosher Salt

2 Tbsp sugar, honey or agave

1/8 cup olive oil

7 cups whole wheat flour

Note: I added 2 Tbsp dried rosemary and 

2 tsp parsley garlic to the dough since it's going to be pizza.

Note: for a lighter dough use half whole wheat, half all-purpose flour, decreasing the water to 3 1/4 cups.

Mix until all blended, but don't knead.

Place in a 6 quart container that has a lid on your counter.

 Put the lid on, but not sealing it.

 Let dough sit and poof on counter for about 2 hours.  Then close the lid tightly and put in the fridge.  Let rest for about 2-3 hours at least.  It will develop more sourdough properties the longer you leave it.  It will keep for 7 days, 10 if you used 1/2 all-purpose flour.

When you are ready to bake, Preheat your oven to 425 to 450 degrees with your pizza stone in the oven.  Prepare parchment paper with some semolina or cornmeal to keep the pizza from sticking.  Remove about a baseball to a softball size of dough and shape into large round disk, pushing and pulling dough to get the right shape.

The book I read said that it was against the law in Italy to use a rolling pin on the pizza dough.  Since I'm not in Italy, nor am I a purist, I used my rolling pin a little to get the dough the way I wanted it.

Bake on pizza stone for about 10 minutes.  Let cool slightly and DIG IN!

So yummy! So easy!
Plus you snuck in some whole grain! Bonus!