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Wow wow wow these Ciabatta Bread Sticks taste sooo good! It’s week 3 of the Great British Bake Off 2021 bake-along which is bread week! My favourite! Last week Paul asked the bakers to make 15 Ciabatta Bread Sticks and serve it with a homemade Tzatziki dip.
I got on really well this week – apart from forgetting to add the coriander to the bread dough – doh! So Paul may not have been impressed with me… Nevertheless, the ciabatta bread sticks tasted great and I have included the recipe plus my own tips, tricks and recipe twists below for you!
Paul’s Ciabatta Bread Sticks and Tzatziki Recipe
I am pleasantly surprised by how delicious these ciabatta bread sticks are! Crusty and light bread, salty olives, strong cheese, sweet red onions and coriander – what more could you want? Oh yes, a cooling, garlicky yoghurt dip to dip the breads into! This recipe has it all!
The Ciabatta Bread Sticks
On the Bake Off, the bakers were asked to make 15 bread sticks. While I do have an army of friends ready to take all my bakes off me, 15 bread sticks is quite a lot and way more than anyone might make on a “normal” occasion. So in my version of the recipe, I adapted the original recipe (see here) and reduced the quantity by 1/3 to make 10 bread sticks.
If you have a free-standing mixer, this ciabatta bread stick recipe could not be any easier to make! All you do is make the dough, leave it to prove for 2 hours, cut it into strips and bake! I will definitely be making these again, and while I liked the flavour combinations in this, I might try something different next time.
The Tzatziki Dip
The Tzatziki dip was also really good – although I’m not sure it was quite as good as my own, haha! I really liked the idea of grating the cucumber rather than chopping it finely, as well as using a little salt to extract most of the liquid. I might use that trick next time I’m making my own version of Tzatziki, which you can check out here.
What do you need to make Paul’s Ciabatta Bread Sticks?
Ingredients
As always, you don’t need much to make a simple bread dough: strong white bread flour, some dried yeast, salt, water, and a little olive oil is all it takes! The beauty of these bread sticks lies in the other ingredients that are added to it!
To make these Ciabatta Bread Sticks, you will need some pitted green olives, Manchego cheese (a fairly dry Spanish cheese you may have had if you’ve gone to a Tapas restaurant before), a red onion and some coriander. I – like an idiot – actually forgot to add my coriander to the breadsticks… But they still taste really good, so if you’re not a fan of coriander, just leave it out.
Finally, you will also need a lot of semolina for when you are cutting the bread into strips to prevent it from sticking.
Equipment
You don’t need a lot of equipment for this recipe, but the few things you do need are quite essential. The real challenge for this recipe is if you do not have a hand-held or free-standing mixer. The dough is very wet and would be difficult to knead by hand, so I would say a mixer is definitely essential. A free-standing one is obviously the best as you can go away and do something else while the dough is kneading. I am very lucky and recently bought a Kenwood Mixer, so I was able to do that!
You will also need a large square or rectangular plastic container for proving the bread dough. As the dough needs to be handled as little as possible after proving, it is good to let it rise in a square container to already take on a rectangular shape. The dough is then tipped onto a worksurface and cut into strips. You can either use a sharp knife for this, or a metal dough scraper like this.
More Bake Off Technical Challenge Recipes
I am absolutely obsessed with the Great British Bake Off and have challenged myself to attempt all of (or at least the ones that are “realistic” – I won’t be making pitta breads on a camp fire in the back garden!) the technical challenges from the programme! I have tried quite a few already, so make sure you check out some of the other recipes and see how I got on!
- Mary Berry’s Religieuses
- Mary Berry’s Fraisier Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Hand-raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pies
- Mary Berry’s Bakewell Tart with feathered Icing
- Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
- Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf
- Mary Berry’s Homemade Jaffa Cakes
- Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
- Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Mini Pork Pies
- Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
- Prue’s Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts (S2UC Special)
- Pizza Star Bread (Junior Bake Off)
- Mary Berry’s Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake
- Paul’s Crusty White Cob
- Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels
- Prue Leith’s Malt Loaf
- Paul’s Jammy Biscuits
- Paul Hollywood’s Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks with Homemade Tzatziki
- Prue Leith’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles
- Prue Leith’s Prinzregententorte
- Paul Hollywood’s Baklava (22cm)
- Paul’s Caramel Biscuit Bars (Twix)
- Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
- Prue’s Sablé Breton Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Sticky Belgian Buns
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
- Prue’s Garibaldi Biscuits with Feathered Chocolate Icing
- Paul Hollywood’s Pain au Raisins
- Paul’s Spicy Beef Tacos
- Paul Hollywood’s S’mores
- Prue Leith’s Pistachio Praline Ice Cream Cones
- Vegetable Spring Rolls
- Prue’s Vertical Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Raspberry Tarts
- Paul Hollywood’s Devonshire Splits
Paul’s Ciabatta Bread Sticks | Great British Bake Off 2021 Technical Challenge
Recipe
Ingredients (makes 10):
FOR THE BREADSTICKS
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 10g salt
- 10g fast-action dried yeast
- 400ml lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
- 200g pitted green queen olives, halved
- 150g Manchego cheese, cut into 2cm cubes
- ½ large (or 1 small) red onion, finely chopped
- large handful of coriander, leaves picked and roughly chopped
- semolina, for dusting
FOR THE TZATZIKI (or follow my own recipe here):
- 100g? ¼ cucumber
- ¼ tsp salt
- 150g full-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 small garlic clove, crushed or finely grated
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp tzatziki seasoning, optional
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
- Hand-held or free-standing mixer with a dough hook (I used my Kenwood)
- 5L plastic container with a lid
- Sharp knife or metal dough scraper
- 2 large baking trays
- Baking paper
- Wire cooling rack
Method:
- Tip the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook or a bowl you can use your hand-held electric mixer in. Add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other, then mix them into the flour on their respective sides of the bowl.
- Add three quarters of the water and start mixing on low speed. As the dough starts to come together, gradually add the remaining water.
- Mix for a further 5–8 minutes on medium speed. The dough should be wet and stretch easily when pulled. Add the olive oil and mix for a further 3 minutes.
- Next, add the olives, Manchego cheese, onion, and chopped coriander and mix until evenly distributed throughout the dough. Tip the dough into the oiled container, cover and leave it for 1–2 hours at room temperature, until at least doubled in size.
- In the meantime, you can prepare the tzatziki dip. Grate the cucumber and place it into a sieve set over a bowl. Sprinkle over the salt and leave to sit for 10 minutes to extract the water from the cucumber. Let the water drip into the bowl below, and squeeze out any remaining liquid using your hands.
- In a bowl, combine the yoghurt, cucumber, crushed garlic, olive oil, vinegar and tzatziki seasoning and mix. Season to taste with salt and pepper and chill in the fridge until needed. her.
- Prepare two large baking trays by lining them with greaseproof baking paper.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, dust the work surface heavily with semolina, then carefully tip the dough on top. Handle the dough gently to keep as much air in it as possible. Dust the top of the dough with semolina, then stretch it out gently to a rough rectangle.
- Starting at one long edge, cut the dough into 10 strips. Stretch each piece out until 35 cm long. Place five strips, equally spaced, onto each of the prepared baking trays.
- Cover and leave the dough strips to rise for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 240°C/220°C fan.
- Bake the breadsticks for 15–20 minutes until risen and golden brown. Transfer the Olive Ciabatta Breadsticks to a wire cooling rack and leave to cool completely before serving with the tzatziki.
