Fair warning that this isn’t a new recipe. I first published it here, but it’s a little hard to find and, in real life, I refer to it a lot so I thought it needed a renaissance. Plus I don’t use a bread machine anymore. But these, made into breadsticks, are my new breakfast obsession.

The idea came because last week, after recording a podcast which took an enormous amount of brain power, I had an excellent and enormous chicken salad sandwich at Honey & Co. And, not entirely sated because I ate it so fast even though the sandwich was enormous, and fancying something else (but not able to eat cakey things) I spotted a big fat doughy bread stick covered in seeds. I bought it and it was delicious. I managed to save half – the restraint – for my breakfast the next day.

I would imagine that the Honey & Co breadsticks may have been a chollah dough but not sure. It was ‘sweet’ (relatively speaking) and rich and I determined to recreate the breadsticks when I got home.

Which I did the very next day using my years’ old enriched dough recipe.

It works very well. You can easily halve this dough, or augment it further but this, for us, makes eight breakfast brioches in mini loaf tins (I use this one and it’s fab) or you could use it to make two ‘stollen’ shaped loaves or I make eight seeded bread sticks.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of yeast (I use Dove’s Farm)
500g of white bread flour (I use 400g of white and 100g of wholemeal)
Two teaspoons of caster sugar
50g of butter, softened (I use Naturli Block as I don’t eat dairy)
Two eggs
Two tablespoons of dairy or plant milk (I use oat)
One teaspoon of salt
170ml of water
(A beaten egg or milk for brushing on pre baking)
Plus whatever inclusions you want, see below.

When you do get to bake them the oven needs to be on at 220C, for cooking times see further on.

That’s the basic dough. You put all the ingredients in a bowl and, using the dough stick on my Kenwood Chef, I knead it for ten minutes.

You can also do it by hand (in which case I would mix it together as best you, then leave it for ten minutes, go back to it and give it another light knead, leave it for another ten minutes, go back to it and give it a light knead (keep the dough covered during the rest periods) then leave it for thirty minutes and go back to it and give it a light knead then follow as per the instructions coming up.

If you want to add things in you can add them in towards the end of the ten minute machine knead, or at any point by hand before shaping.

For chocolate chip breakfast brioches I use 160g chocolate chips (the Island ones are excellent for this but of course any will do, or just chop up a bar of your preferred chocolate).

For the loaves I add 160g of nuts and seeds, you don’t have to be super precise with measuring as long as you don’t overwhelm the dough.

For the breadsticks I just sprinkle linseeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds on the surface as I roll them out.

When the dough is nicely come together, either by 10 mins machine knead or by hand, you then leave it, covered, at room temperature for about an hour in a temperate room. If it’s super hot it may need a shorter time, if it’s cold maybe a bit longer. I know this is hard to gauge, and hard to explain.

At this point you then shape the dough into whatever you want it to become, what will be its destiny? If using a mini loaf tin I gently oil the tin but otherwise I put the shaped dough – in whatever shapes I’ve decided on – on a parchment lined tray and put in the oven overnight. This is, for me, the easiest way to deal with these babies. I leave the final, shaped, prove to the fridge. But if you want them sooner than that I’d give them another hour or so at room temperature before baking (ie no fridge prove).

When ready to cook you do so at 220C for between 10-25 minutes depending on what you’ve made – see below. They freeze really well and the breadsticks are great in the morning (I dip mine in my coffee (I’m Italian) and love love love them, for me they are the perfect gentle breakfast before a work out, and when you don’t eat pastries they are heavenly) or of course you can use them for dips. They make great lunchbox/picnic fare and travel well.

My youngest has the brioches with chocolate chips and nuts most mornings and i used to make these in loaves with nuts and dried fruit for my mamma. I hope you enjoy them!

Small brioches take 10mins, bigger ones take about 14mins.
Two loaves take about 20-25 – check after 20
Breadsticks take 12 mins