Gluten Free Parmesan Cayenne Grissini

Recipe Video 

Crisp, cheesy, lightly spicy - these Gluten Free Parmesan Cayenne Grissini are the perfect hand held party food! Low maintenance and easy to do, these breadsticks keep like little champions, so they can be done well in advance as well.

I've always loved grissini, but there aren't many gluten free versions available. And those that are, well, they're not great. So, great grissini went on my to-do list pretty much as soon as I started making wonderful gluten free bread!

My first version of grissini stars herbs and seeds, but I wanted an extra-special version for the festive season. The parmesan in this recipe brings all the salty, nutty deliciousness you'd expect, and cayenne pepper and poppy seeds bring up the rear to create a snack that's pretty darn difficult to refuse!

How to make Gluten Free Parmesan Cayenne Grissini

1. Mixing the dough: the process for mixing this dough is hugely approachable. As always, we get the yeast and psyllium ready first, mixing them individually with some of the water and sugar and setting them aside while we measure everything else. Because grissini don't require much dough this mix is small enough to mix by hand - it's really not worth getting a mixer out. It's also a pretty dry dough, so you won't get too much gooey mixture stuck to your hands, I promise! The main point here is that while it's a firm dough it should be able to hold itself together. If yours is still crumbling a bit just sprinkle it with a little additional water and knead it again.

2. First Prove: I coat my doughs in oil to make sure they don't dry out during proving. We just need to drizzle about a tablespoon around and on top of the dough to coat. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, then choose a warm spot if you have one, but regular old room temperature is fine too. This dough won't rise a huge amount, but it's still important to give it time for the flavour to develop.

3. Kneading: it's important to give the dough a bit of a knead on a lightly floured surface before shaping. This gets all the air out of it and makes it easier to get a good, even shape.

4. Shaping: The shaping process for these Parmesan Cayenne Grissini is very beginner friendly. The only real trick is to give each little ball of dough a good squeeze so it stays together well, then all we need to do is roll it out into a snake - you shouldn't need to add much flour to your worktop, if any. Too much flour will dry the dough out and make it difficult to shape the grissini without it all becoming a crumbly nightmare! I like to keep mine to about 18cm long.

5. Second Prove: The second proof is probably the most important part of this recipe. Because the dough in this recipe is relatively stiff it can be difficult to gtell when the grissini are ready to go in the oven. I like to make note of which ones I rolled first and last, and when I can see they're all looking a bit puffy I'll put them in the oven. You'll know how you did with the second prove once they're baked. I find that if I put my grissini in too early they look great, but they'll be hollow in the middle. It's no big deal, you'll still get delicious grissini! Just give them another 10 minutes or so next time!

6. Baking: these grissini bake for a fairly long time compared to their size. They just need to dry out and become crisp. I find I need to rotate the trays part way through baking to get them all evenly browned.

How to store Gluten Free Parmesan Cayenne Grissini

One of the best things about these Gluten Free Parmesan Cayenne Grissini is how incredibly well they last. You could make these a good few days before you serve them and as long as you store them in an airtight container they'll still be good as new on the day. Job. Done!