This isn't my recipe (it's Martha's from the November magazine), but the picture was so enticing I couldn't eat lunch this afternoon until I'd made some of her braided breadsticks. Even though they were a little fussy (rolling 16 two-foot-long, quarter-inch-wide strips of dough is only fun for .2% of the actual time required), the dough itself is really simple and, without the braiding, easy to make!
Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 t salt
2 t sugar
2 T butter
3/4 cup whole milk
1 egg yolk
1 T whole milk
large-grained salt
What to do:
Preheat oven to 350˚.
1. Mix flour, salt, and sugar until combined.
2. Add butter and milk, stirring and then kneading on a floured surface. Don't knead more than enough times to just get the dough into a ball.
3. Divide the dough until 16 equal-sized balls.
4. Roll each ball into a strand about 2 feet long (it should be around 1/4 inch thick, maybe a little thicker... it doesn't REALLY need to be this length... I think mine were about 75% that).
5. Braid in a four-strand braid, folding over and under at the end as shown.
6. Let dough rest for about half an hour (I didn't do this step, as it took me so long to braid the darn things that a half hour had passed by the time I finished them all).
7. Brush top of completed wreath with egg yolk/milk mixture, covering liberally.
8. Sprinkle salt on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top. If wreaths don't brown, turn up the heat a bit and keep and eye on them until they do!
I had my braided wreath breadstick with a bowl of orzo-chicken-hamburger-mushroom-spinach-thyme-oregano-bay leaf soup (which is much more delicious and harmonious than the confused description would have you believe).
This is just a basic recipe, obviously. I think it would taste delicious with some fresh rosemary crushed into the dough or even with the salt level halved and a bit of cinnamon with some honey on top. But that's just me, and I won't vouch for anything I haven't tried (yet)!
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