Friday, January 15, 2010

(Old) Cragio’s Breadsticks

Jacob says, "This makes the picture look better!"
These were huge!  The kids and I had them for lunch (the spaghetti sauce has to count as a veggie, right?)  2 1/2 breadsticks fed us all (1 mom, a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 17 month old).  The breadsticks made me reminisce about the good 'ol college days with my sister Amber--you know the days when I spent about $25/week on groceries and then considered it really splurging to spend $5 to get a box of breadsticks from Craigo's to share.  Yum!

3 cups of flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ Tbsp yeast
2 ½ cups HOT water

Mix dry ingredients, then add water. Kneed with 1 ½ to 2 ¼ cups of flour. Let rise.

Roll out into a rectangle. Put butter, garlic salt, all season salt, and cheese. Twist and bake at 400* for 20 minutes.

*I may have needed to clarified this recipe with Emily, but here's how I made this delicious find.  I put all the dry ingredients in my Kitchen Aid then added the water.  After kneading with my dough hook, it was very wet so instead of adding 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 cups of flour; I think I ended up adding just over 3 cups of flour.  I kneaded it with the dough hook for approximately 10 minutes in all and let rise until it doubled (1 1/2 hours).  Then I punched down the down and rolled it out (using more flour).  I divided the dough into 9 sections and with my hands rolled them out to about 18 inches.  I then braided each piece on top of itself and let them rise in the pan for 45 min.  Looking back, I probably didn't need to add as much flour.  Next, I spread about 1/4 cup of butter on the bread sticks and sprinkled lightly with garlic salt.  Baked them for 12 minutes, removed, added about 1 1/2 cups pizza/mozzarella shredded cheese and sprinkled parmesan cheese, and cooked 8 minutes more. 

**A late note:  After making these a couple of times, I have a few pointers.  Made as directed above, the breadsticks look just like Crago's, but I've had trouble with them being a little on the doughy side in the middle.  I suggested using a large cookie sheet (they will still raise and touch each other) and divide into at least 12 breadsticks.  We love these!

7 comments:

  1. Thank you!!!! I loved Craigo's and would buy and eat the breadsticks without sharing! I went to school there from 92 to 94! Could you explain more how you braided the breadsticks? It seem like Craigo's would roll out the dough then slice the dough into strips and then braid them because the breadsticks weren't completely round.

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  2. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! We have been looking for the recipe for 9 years now :) They are sooooo yummy!

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  3. To braid the breadsticks, take one of the 9 sections, roll it out with your hands (like you are making a snake out of playdough) until it is about 18 inches long. Then, pick it up in the middle and cross the two ends over, right end over right end until you reach the bottom. Hope that helps! Glad you like the recipe!

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  4. hooray!!! Long live Craigos! bellesbazaar-heather.blogspot.com

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  5. You're close but not quite. Your missing one ingredient. I helped to manage the place at one time so I'm quite familiar with the recipe. Unfortunately it's secret so I can't tell you what your missing.

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