Crisp and moreish, grissini (Italian breadsticks) are among the recipes Italians know and love best. The grissini torinesi were born in Turin in the second half of the seventeenth century thanks to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, the future King of Sardinia: unable to tolerate the soft crumb of bread, he needed a more digestible baked product. The court bakers immediately set to work and created a product with a taste and fragrance unknown at the time, el ghersin. Ever since, the grissini have won over every palate: Napoleon Bonaparte was so fond of them that he set up a shipping service to have them delivered straight from Turin!
Their fame was not confined to Italy and soon spread all over the world; today grissini are prized for their lightness and versatility, both as a snack and as an accompaniment to all sorts of dishes.
And now… let's get kneading!
Grissini with biga: the ingredients
BIGA (12–18 hours at 18–20 °C)
- 400 g W250–280 flour
- 180 g water
- 4 g baker's yeast
GRISSINI
- 100 g W250–280 flour
- 50 g extra virgin olive oil
- 5 g barley malt (or sugar)
- 2 g yeast
- 11 g salt
- Water:
stretched grissini = for a dry dough, 60–70 g of water (48–50% of the total flour)
rolled grissini = for a soft dough, 95–120 g of water (55–60% of the total flour)
Method: the biga
The biga is a pre-ferment used for leavened products made with the indirect method: it is obtained by mixing flour, water and baker's yeast and leaving them to ferment for anywhere between 12 hours (short biga) and 48 hours (long biga).
- Pour the flour, yeast and water into a bowl.
- Work the ingredients until the dough is even: it should not be worked for long, just enough to bring it together into a small ball of dough.
- Cover the dough with cling film and leave it to rise at room temperature for 12–18 hours.
Method: the grissini
Once the biga is ready, we can move on to making the grissini.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, yeast, barley malt (or sugar) and salt. Add the room-temperature water and the oil, and mix everything with a fork.
- When the dough starts to firm up, add the biga and start kneading by hand.
- When the dough is smooth and even, place it on a work surface dusted beforehand with coarse flour (semolina, cornmeal, kamut, etc.), lightly oil the surface of the dough, cover with cling film and leave it to rise until doubled in volume.
- Remove the cling film and dust the surface with a thin layer of flour.
5. Time to shape the grissini! You can do it in two ways: with our manual grissini machines or electric ones, or by hand. Using a steel dough scraper, cut strips of dough 2 cm wide and stretch them by pulling from the ends to a thickness of 1–1.5 cm, which should be even along the whole length of the grissino (this step takes a little practice to achieve a uniform thickness). Place the strip of dough on a baking tray and press the ends down lightly so that they stick and the strip does not shrink back.
6. At this point you can either bake straight away, for firm, crunchy grissini, or let them rise for 45–50 minutes to make them more crumbly.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 170–180 °C for 20 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, lower the oven to 140 °C and leave the oven door slightly open to let the steam escape for another 20 minutes.
Let them cool and serve! The grissini will keep in a jar or a tin for 2–3 days; after that they will start to lose their crunch.
Fun facts
Grissini are included in the list of PAT (prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, Italy's officially recognised traditional food products), and we can divide them into two main types:
- Robatà (Piedmontese for rolled) is the hand-rolled grissino, and the original form. Knobbly, it ranges in length from 40 to 80 cm.
- Stirato (a more recent invention than the robatà) is neither rolled nor pressed flat, but stretched by pulling the two ends, which gives the final product greater friability because it is thinner.
The final product is similar to the crust of a loaf: the lack of soft crumb makes for a more digestible product, and the grissino is easier on the stomach than ordinary bread. Like all dry products, the grissino's one enemy is moisture: always store grissini tightly closed in jars and in as dry a place as possible; that way they will keep for several days before going soft.
In recent years countless variations on the recipe have appeared for making grissini: milk instead of water, lard or butter added in place of olive oil, or various flavourings such as sesame, chilli, olives, walnuts or fennel. Even the flour can be replaced with kamut, spelt or quinoa flour, and so on… All that's left is to experiment in the kitchen and find the best recipe for your grissini!
