Cheesy Breadsticks (Sourdough)

I have not been having good bread days lately. I just haven't had the spoons to do it properly. I thought I'd get a good batch made this weekend, but I was very tired this morning and forgot to zero the scale which resulted in some very stiff dough. I tried to amend it a bit, but I was worried about overshooting and didn't add enough water. So my bread is not shaping up great so far. I'll bake it off tomorrow morning, but I don't have high hopes for this one. Maybe I can take another crack at it next weekend.

In the meantime, I decided to use some of the excess starter to make breadsticks. These also could've used a little more care and attention, but they still came out pretty good.

Cheesy Breadsticks

Slightly adapted from Sourdough Companion

Ingredients

• 340g soft flour¹
• 9g coarse sea salt
• 25g unsalted butter
• 125g cream cheese
• 200g ripe/active starter (100%) hydration
• 180mL water
• extra cheese, cubed (optional)

Directions

1. Mix flour and salt.
2. Cut in butter and cream cheese.
3. Mix in starter and water to form a soft dough.
4. Knead for a minute or two, then cover and leave to rest for about an hour.
5. Stretch and fold, flip over, cover, and rest for another hour.
6. Give it one or two more stretches at one-hour intervals (depending on how lively the dough seems). If desired, work in some extra cheese on the last stretch.
7. Shape dough into a ball and leave to rest for 20-30 minutes.
8. Press flat and cut into thirds.
9. Cut each third into long, skinny rectangles.
10. Stretch each rectangle to desired length and place on a greased baking sheet.
11. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes. (You may need more or less time depending on the thickness of your breadsticks.)

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¹ I used a mix of white and whole wheat. ^Back