Food Nanny Garlic Bread Sticks

These bread sticks are simply awesome. They taste a lot like Olive Garden's bread sticks.The dough is easy to whip up and work with and from start to finish these breadsticks only take about 45 minutes to make. That's awesome. My 4 year old loved rolling the dough into "snakes" to for the bread sticks. We didn't roll them out long enough to make them look like Olive Garden bread sticks but they still tasted great. This recipe makes 16-18 bread sticks. Oh, and also this is the Food Nanny's (aka Liz Edmunds) pizza dough recipe - it makes 1 large pizza crust.

Food Nanny Garlic Bread Sticks

1 tablespoon active dry yeast (I use SAF)
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups bread flour
1/3 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt or garlic powder

Mix the yeast and water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let stand until foamy (about 5 minutes). Add the oil, honey, and salt to the yeast mixture. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time, up to 2 1/2 cups mixing well after each addition. If the dough is too wet mix in more flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough is soft and pulls away from sides of mixing bowl. Knead with the mixer or by hand for 5-6 minutes or until dough is stiff and somewhat firm to the touch.

Pinch off about 2 tablespoons of dough at a time (or divide into 16 - 18 pieces) and roll on a flat surface to form a bread stick. Lay formed dough pieces on a greased sheet pan.

Mix together melted butter and garlic salt. Brush onto bread sticks. Cover with non-stick sprayed plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

After bread sticks have risen bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Brush additional garlic butter halfway through baking and again after the bread sticks come out of the oven.