I made a mistake a while ago while making pizza crust. I doubled the recipe but forgot to split the dough between two pizza pans, making a huge puffy crust. It still tasted just fine with the toppings and the best part turned out to be the crust edge. It had the texture of a breadstick, like you’d find at some of those ‘Italian’ (and I use that term loosely) chain restaurants, except much tastier and slightly chewier.
So I took my pizza dough recipe and tweaked it a teeny tiny bit, added some garlic-butter fun and baked up these tasty breadsticks.
(edited to add) This is not a typical bread dough recipe. Like a lot of gluten-free bread recipes it comes out of the mixer very sticky and behaves more like a batter bread. You should still be able to form the sticky batter into breadsticks. The next time I make these I’ll make a video of the technique and so you can see what the batter looks and how it behaves.
The use of ziploc bags on the hands to help with greasing the pan and forming the dough into breadsticks is handy (and looks ridiculous). If you care how you look and want to not look ridiculous, I imagine plastic or latex antiseptic gloves would do the trick, too. But where’s the fun in that?!
I’m adding the recipe in full here with my adjustments for this specific application. I hope you enjoy these as much as we did.
- 2 tablespoons dry active yeast
- 1⅓ cup brown rice flour
- 1 cup tapioca starch
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 2 teaspoons Italian herb seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1⅓ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use plain almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon agave nectar
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 2-3 tablespoons melted vegan margarine
- ⅛ teaspoon granulated garlic powder
- ⅛ teaspoon dried parsley
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Combine dry ingredients, including yeast, in the work bowl of your mixer.
- Add liquid ingredients slowly and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- If dough bounces around in the bowl too much, add about 1 tablespoon of almond milk at a time until it no longer bounces around.
- Prepare a baking sheet by greasing with a bit of olive oil. Use your plastic-bagged (or gloved) hands to spread the oil around evenly.
- Use those greased up hands to divide the dough up into 6 equal portions.
- Form each portion into a long breadstick that is uniform from end to end. (Don’t make breadsticks that are fat in the middle and skinny on the end or they won’t bake up as nice and evenly.)
- Place on greased baking sheet.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the melted vegan margarine, garlic powder and parsley flakes. Brush on the tops of each breadstick.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until nice and golden brown.
- Brush with any remaining garlic butter mixture once again (if desired), and serve hot.
I burnt my tongue eating these because I couldn’t wait until they cooled even slightly. Yes, they’re that good.
And check out the awesome texture on these little babies.
We LOVE LOVE LOVE these breadsticks! A couple months ago, our family began the journey of a gluten free diet for our 2 year old. We were very intimidated by everything we had to give up and our other children, ages 4 and 3, and 10 months did not receive the new food well. We have persevered, but your breadsticks have given us new hope! We cannot get enough! You have made four toddlers and their parents very very happy. Thank you!
Hi Rachel, I am so thrilled to hear that you loved this recipe. (It’s a personal fave as well!) But even more so, I was truly touched by your comment. Food is such an integral part of everyone’s lives. We entertain with food, we share with food and over food, we experience culture and life with food. So when we are forced to change what we eat and how we eat, it can feel so disparaging. I am glad you have persevered and that this lowly little recipe has given you and your family some happiness and hope. I hope you’re able to find other tasty recipes here that you can enjoy as you continue your journey as a gluten-free family. And please, if you ever have any questions or need suggestions/ideas that you can’t find answers to here – just let me know. I’d be happy to help.
All the best!
Megan
Just Made These…And Oh my how I failed! They Didn’t rise even a little bit…And I couldn’t shape them to save my soul. I made the dough too watery. And I forgot to get Tapioca Starch, so I used Corn starch as a substitute…Oh well! They taste mighty good though!!!
Oh no! I hate when stuff doesn’t turn out. The substitution of cornstarch for tapioca starch should have been okay … but I guess the watery dough might have been the issue. I am surprised they didn’t rise. Is your yeast still fresh? There’s quite a bit in this recipe so it should have risen even slightly. I hope you give it another try and let me know if you have better success!
I just made these and almost failed also. The dough was more like a thick batter that was unable to have a shape. I was curious if the liquid to dry ratio was off or something. I ended up adding alot more brown rice flour to get it to a consistency that was shape able and they came out tasting good. They did rise a bit too much though and were more the size of small french bread loaves.
2 tablespoons dry active yeast
1 1/3 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
2 teaspoons Italian herb seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use plain almond milk)
1 teaspoon agave nectar
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2-3 tablespoons melted vegan margarine
1/8 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon dried parsley
Are the amounts correct above? .. still delicious but just wanna make sure.
Hi Joanna,
The way the recipe is written, the dough is very sticky. It’s not like a typical bread dough at all, but more like a batter bread. That’s why the technique for gloving/bagging the hand and oiling it is so important. I know it seems like the dough needs more flour to help make it workable – and I’m glad that when you added more brown rice flour it still turned out – but I promise it does work with the measurements given for a super fluffy and nicely delicate breadstick.
I’m going to update the recipe to explain the sticky nature of the batter so that it helps alleviate some confusion.
Thanks!
I just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed this recipe. I needed to make several substitutions for my family but they still turned out amazing. Also, I put my dough into a ziptop bag and cut the corner, it squeezed out nice, uniform shaped breadsticks without any fuss. Me and two of my kids need to eat gluten-free, and for my boys this was their first time ever having breadsticks. Thank you!
Thanks for the awesome recipes!!! Should I be able to substitute honey for the agave in the same amount?
Hey Natalie, I think so. Often times when I see honey in a recipe I sub it with agave and reduce the amount slightly because agave tends to be a touch sweeter than honey or sugar, I find. You should be good to swap straight across in this recipe.
Thanks Megan! Giving it a go as we speak – will let you know how it turns out!
Wow, very nice recipe! I used the honey instead of the agave and used coconut milk. Turned out a little doughy though, even with an extra 5 minutes. However, let me add that the doughy-ness has NO ill effects on the taste! Awesome! Kid review on a scale of 1-10 is an 8.5.
This recipe looks great- we have been gf for a year (along with dairy, corn, eggs, soy and sugar free) and I am just now feeling ready to try making breads with yeast. New experience for me! My question is that I don’t have a stand mixer- can I mix this with a handheld mixer and get the same results? Or by hand? Thanks so much!
Ashley
Definitely you can use a hand mixer. The dough is almost a sticky batter bread dough, not stiff like regular bread dough. If you have a decent hand mixer you should be ok. And of course, you can definitely do it the old school way with a nice big wooden spoon! I should probably do that every once in a while to work out these triceps.
I hope you enjoy these breadsticks. I’d say they’re a pretty great treat, especially if you’ve been living without so much in the past year.
Thank you so much, these turned out great! I made the recipe as described except substituted guar gum for xanthan gum and used rice milk. They are perfect! I did what someone above suggested and used a baggie with the corner cut out to extrude perfectly shaped breadsticks onto the pan. What a useful tip that was, thanks!
Awesome! I’ll have to try the plastic bag trick next time I make these.
Just made these – OMG! You are my new favorite person! The plastic bag trick worked great as well. So yummy. Eating the last one right now!
Made my day! I love being someone’s favorite person.
So glad it worked great for you.
We love these breadsticks!!!! I just made another batch about to cook them. This time I used homemade cashew milk instead of almond. Also, doubled the salt, garlic powder, and brushed olive oil and minced garlic on the top. You dont have to deal with the sticky mess at the end just add extra flour. Same goes for making the sticks. You can put flour on your hands and the counter and roll out the sticks, it makes it much easier.
Awesome. Glad to hear using flour to roll these out works good too. I’ll try that next time for sure.
What flour can I use in place of brown rice? Will millet work?
thank you.
Bev
Millet may work but since it is a heavier and more dense flour it will likely affect the dough. An ideal gluten-free flour to use instead of brown rice flour would be sorghum flour. It has a lot of the same characteristics when it comes to using it in your baked goods.
These were incredible. They reminded my boyfriend and me of the garlic bread we used to always make before going GF. Since we’re not vegan, we “unveganed” the recipe with cow’s milk and butter and they were great! The dough is REALLy wet, as noted, so I didn’t have high hopes (and ended up making 4 breadsticks instead of 6) so they were a bit big but delicious nonetheless.
So glad you guys enjoyed these. The dough is really wet … I haven’t had a chance to experiment with adding more flour and I’m always worried that more flour would take away some of that light airiness of these breadsticks. I think I really should try though just so the dough is a bit easier to work with.
These are absolutely the best breadsticks ever! My kids come running to the kitchen when I announce that they are ready. If only I could get the same reaction to veggies! Thanks for the great recipe.
You’re welcome Sarah! This has turned into one of the most kid-friendly recipes I’ve come up with so far.
I’m glad it’s a hit in your household.
Last night I needed some bread to go with my homemade potato soup. Right before dinner time I ran across this recipe. I was amazed at how good they are!!
The one thing that I did different so I wouldn’t have to handle the dough was to put it all in a ziploc bag (after it was through in the mixer). Before putting the dough in, I put about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil into the bag so the dough would have easier movement and not stick to the back so bad. I snipped a hole in one corner and piped the dough onto my baking sheet. It worked great but next time I’ll cut a smaller hole!!
This recipe is definitely a keeper!!