Paul’s Olive Breadsticks – The Great British Bake Off Recipe

[schema type=”recipe” name=”Paul’s Olive Breadsticks – The Great British Bake Off Recipe” author=”Rachel Howard” pubdate=”2013-08-27″ image=”http://www.sundaybaking.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/bread3-700.jpg” description=”Pauls Olive Breadsticks , filled with green olives work fantastically with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. ” prephours=”1″ prepmins=”10″ cookmins=”15″ yield=”36″ ]

I will never buy breadsticks again!…Home made is definitely the way to go!

I love watching The Great British Bake Off! Especially the earlier episodes where mistakes are frequent….Who has that much salt to hand?!

My favourite from last week was definitely the hidden squirrel cake – I need to perfect a hidden shape cake! I’ll try it soon.

I believe this week it’s BREAD so I got straight into the kitchen when I got home today and made these tasty Olive Breadsticks. I haven’t really made much bread so I was a little nervous as the last dough I tried didn’t raise at all. But I left it in the airing cupboard for an hour and when I checked it had risen loads! Then I was worried when I tried to spread the dough out as it was really wet. But they turned out perfectly and tast amazing!

I’ll be snacking my way through tonight’s show!

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• 1kg strong white bread flour
• 20g salt
• 20g fast action dried yeast
• 800ml tepid water
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1kg good quality pitted green olives – well drained
• Fine semolina for dusting (optional)

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Method:

• Put the flour into the bowl of a large free standing electric mixer with a dough hook
• Add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other side
• Pour in three-quarters of the water and begin mixing on a slow speed
• As soon as the dough starts to come together, slowly add the rest of the water, still mixing
• Turn up to medium speed and mix for a further 5-8 minutes
• The dough should now be wet and easy to stretch when pulled
• Add the olive oil and mix for a further 2 minutes
• Add the olives and mix with your hands or a spoon until evenly distributed in the dough
• Grease two 2-3 litre square plastic tubs or containers with oil
• Divide the dough equally between the tubs and cover with clingfilm
• Leave on the worktop until the dough has at least tripled in size – about 1 hour (I popped it in the airing cupboard)
• Towards the end of the rising time heat the oven to 220C
• Heavily dust the worktop with flour and semolina if you have it and line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper
• Carefully tip the dough onto the floury surface
• The dough will be very loose and flowing but don’t worry – rather than knock it back to deflate, you should dust the top of the dough with flour and then gently stretch it out with your fingertips until it’s about 1cm thick
• Starting at one long side, cut the dough rectangle into about 18 strips using a large knife or pizza cutter
• Lay the strips on, spaced well apart, on the lined baking sheets – 6 strips to a sheet
• Place in the heated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool while you shape and bake the second batch of breadsticks

I didn’t actually make this amount – I only had 400g of flour so scaled down the ingredients. They still worked perfectly! And they will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.

I will 100% be making these again.

Thank you to The Great British Bake Off for making me bake something I wouldn’t usually try!