Breadsticks, Gluten-Free

Note: This recipe uses my gluten-free flour mix:

Jeanne's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix (mix together and store in fridge):

1 1/4 C. brown rice flour

1 1/4 C. white rice flour

1 C. tapioca flour

1 C. sweet rice flour (also known as Mochiko)

2 scant tsp. xanthan gum

(you can also use the gluten-free flour mixture of your choice--just be sure it contains xanthan gum. Or, you can add 1/4-1/2 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of gluten-free flour. If you use bean flour, it will add a bean taste to the bread)

Special equipment needed

-a stand mixer with a dough hook makes things much more easy and quick

-pastry brush

Ingredients

2/3 C water, warm but not hot

2 TBL sugar

1 TBL active dry yeast (I use Red Star)

2 3/4 C Jeanne's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix

2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

3 TBL olive oil

1 tsp vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)

optional: garlic powder and/or herbs for flavoring

additional olive oil or melted butter for greasing baking sheet and for brushing tops of breadsticks

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

-grease baking sheet with extra olive oil or melted butter, set aside

-in a small bowl, mix warm water and sugar until sugar is dissolved

-add yeast to water-sugar mixture--mix until incorporated. Set aside to let yeast proof (the top of the mixture should get bubbly after a few minutes)

-in bowl of mixer, add flour, xanthan gum, salt, and a dash (or more to taste) of garlic powder or herbs if using. Mix to combine

-to dry ingredients, add eggs, olive oil and vinegar

-add yeast to mixture. With the dough hook, beat the mixture until it comes together as a big blob--about 30 seconds

-you can also do this by hand if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook

-take a small piece of dough in your hand and roll it into a cylinder. You can make the cylinder any size you like. I like to make each about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Repeat with more pieces of dough until you have enough to fill the sheet with about an inch or two in between each cylinder

-at this point, you can either bake immediately, or let cylinders rise for awhile

-I like to let them rise for about 30 minutes, until they get chubby

-just before baking, brush top of each cylinder with olive oil or melted butter. This will allow the tops to get brown and crispy.

-bake for about 14 minutes--until the tops are starting to become light golden brown and the bottoms are brown.

-remove from oven. You can either eat them right away or cool and store in an airtight plastic bag or container. They are delicious plain, with extra olive oil or butter, or with dips. I like to serve them with pasta or with soup.

Note: the dough makes a few dozen breadsticks. If you only want to make one batch, you can store the dough in the fridge for a few days and use as needed.