After all the indulgence of my last post I wanted to attempt something savoury with a little bit of a challenge to it. I also wanted to delve further into the world of bread making. It’s only really since I have started this blog that I have braved the world of bread. Attempts before my blog were less than desirable but slowly I have been gaining confidence in homemade bread.















I am still a little shy at creating my own bread recipes and basically adapted a Paul Hollywood recipe to suit what I wanted for this bake. I had an abundance of pink peppercorns and basil at home and decided these complementary sweet and mildly spicy flavours would go so well together in bread. I didn’t fancy making rolls and after looking around for a little inspiration I decided on breadsticks!















Breadsticks studded throughout with broken pink peppercorns and basil strips.















Pink Peppercorns

There is no reason you couldn’t use other colour peppercorns in these breadsticks, apart from being pretty to look at 🙂 the pink ones do have a little sweetness to them.















Just one word of warning, don’t go to mad with the peppercorns. First time I made these I added 2 and 1/2 tablespoons and I could barely eat them, they were far too peppery for me although Mr Bake Then Eat ate them all up but his tolerance for spice and heat in his food is far higher than mine. I found the perfect balance to be between 1 to 1 and 1/2 tablespoons.















Inclusions

You could add anything to these lovely crispy yet soft centred breadsticks. Paul Hollywood’s original recipe uses olives. I think almost any herbs would work in these, rosemary and sea salt would be a nice combination but as I previously mentioned I had some fresh basil that I wanted to use up.















The dough

I have to admit the dough was a little sticky and I was worried I had made a mistake but I put my faith in Paul Hollywood and he was right it really is good.















The outside has a lovely crispy texture to it but the centre is soft, if you wanted to make these thinner they would be even crispier but I like mine a little bit thicker and softer so they can soak up those lovely flavoured oils and balsamic vinegars!















*Note* I made these using an electric stand mixer but the original recipe does state you can make these the old fashioned way by hand. At least double the kneading times if you are doing it by hand, the dough is very sticky so please be careful when working with it.