No-knead breadsticks

For an antipasti platter I've marinated already eggplants, courgettes, and bell peppers. I fried some saffron-Risotto balls filled with buffalo mozzarella and sage leaves coated with a wine-batter. To wrap some prosciutto around I wanted to make something like thin ciabatte, grissini or breadsticks. I decided to go once again for that easy No-knead-bread and make some slightly changes to the recipe. The bread I've made a couple of month ago turned out very good, except that I wanted it a bit more salty. The crust was crisp and thin. The bread itself fluffy, airy, light, and succulent but not wet. I used it for bruscetta, we dipped it into olive oil and dukkah, and I panfried it and rubbed half a garlic clove on it after sprinkling with a pinch of salt.

This time I added a bit more salt to the dough and lemon juice. You may ask why lemon juice? I added it because I once read that this will provide a bit of a sourdough flavour. So this is my successful trial to bake

No-knead breadsticks

Ingredients:







450 gunbleached, organic all-purpose flour or special bread flour
¼ tspactive dry yeast
1¾tsp salt
360 gtepic water
1 Tbsplemon juice
1 Tbsproughly chopped rosmary - about 2 sprigs
¼Tbspthyme leaves - about 1 sprig

100 gthinly sliced Parma or Serrano ham


Preparation:






Combine the flour, yeast, water, and salt. Add the water and lemon juice and blend together. Cover with cling film and let rise at room temperature for about 18 hours. Until there are many bubbles on the surface. (My dough had to wait for me 21 hours until I found time to work with it. I prepared the breadstick at about 2 am and that's the reason why the pictures of the preparation are that dull. Sorry about that.)
On a floured working surface fold the dough from each side three times to the middle with a spatula. Place it under cling film and let rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Or 15 minutes at room temperature.
According to the size of your longest ovenproof pot with a fitting lid cut parchment/baking paper and fold it like a concertina. With the spatula divide the dough lenghtswise into approximately 2 cm-broad pieces. Place them with the parchment paper in your pot. Sprinkle with herbs. Cover with the lid and let rise for further 2 hours until doubled in size.
At the last 30 to 45 minutes preheat the oven with a bread or pizza stone to 225 °C and place a large ovenproof bowl or pot on the bottom filled with ice cubes to provide additional steam.
If you can manage it initially you should preheat the pot with the oven. But I don't dare to transfer the dough pieces to the hot pot only on the parchment paper.
Place the pot with its lid on the hot baking stone and let the sticks bake for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and mist with water. Bake for further 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Mist once again, remove from the oven. Peel the breadsticks out of the paper and put them back to the hot oven for 5 minutes. Let cool on a wired rack.

Wrap ham over one side of the sticks to serve.