Saturday I attended my first casserole swap party. This is a great idea for anyone who has a busy schedule and needs some new ideas of things to make. I’ll be posting my recipe on Wednesday, but today I’m posting a bread stick I made to take to the party as well. There where a lot of really tasty dishes to try and they where all so different. I can’t wait to make a couple of these to freeze for the hubby to take to work.
I felt like I hit the buffet jackpot. We each brought a frozen casserole to swap and one ready to eat so we could taste test. Here’s my plate:
After dinner Laura made a pound cake with a lavender lemon curd. This was delish!
I made these Grissini for the party and they came out pretty well. I had to bake them a little longer then listed to get them dry and more crispy, but they tasted great.
(Adapted from John Barricelli’s SoNo Baking Company Cookbook)
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon honey
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for coating
Semolina flour, for dusting
In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup water and yeast; let stand until frothy, about 5 minutes.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside. Sprinkle work surface generously with semolina flour so that it covers an area of about 4 by 25 inches.
Place dough on prepared work surface and stretch it out to about 4 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick, to cover semolina. If the dough gives you trouble stretching, let relax for 20 minutes and try again. Sprinkle top of dough with more semolina flour.
Holding one end of a piece of dough in each hand, stretch it out to the length of the baking sheet by twirling it gently.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until soft and puffy, about 20 minutes.
For tomato grissini, dissolve 1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste in the 1 1/4 cups water before adding to the flour mixture in step 2.
For herb grissini, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of desired fresh chopped herbs to the flour and salt in step 2, before adding the wet ingredients.
For black pepper grissini, add 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper to the flour and salt in step 2, before adding the wet ingredients.