Freshly baked breadsticks make everything better, don’t they? These soft, chewy breadsticks with a golden, buttery garlic topping will have your family running to the table. They are the perfect addition to your favorite soups, salads, and pastas. The only issue you might run into is that 12 breadsticks are never enough!
Serve your breadsticks alongside our easy tomato basil soup, fettuccine alfredo, or a classic Ceasar salad.
Why Our Recipe
- Soft, chewy breadsticks with a golden, buttery garlic topping.
- Easy-to-follow instructions for everyone from beginners to pros.
- Bakery quality results in about 90 minutes, with no mixer required.
These breadsticks are super easy to make even if you’re new to baking. You don’t need a stand mixer or fancy equipment, just a little time and love. In under two hours, you’ll have bakery-quality breadsticks that you can even enhance with Parmesan, Italian seasoning, or even a sprinkle of sea salt. Your kitchen will smell amazing!
Ingredient Notes
- Warm Water: It should be between 100°F to 110°F. A kitchen thermometer is helpful here! Heat it in the microwave or use warm tap water. Use a thermometer for accuracy or test with your finger—it should feel warm but not hot like bath water.
- Instant Dry Yeast: This recipe uses instant yeast, which doesn’t need to be proofed beforehand. If you’re using active dry yeast, let it sit in the warm water with sugar for 5–10 minutes until frothy before proceeding.
- Sugar: Helps feed the yeast and brown the tops.
- Olive Oil: Use extra virgin olive oil for the best flavor.
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour or bread flour. If you want to substitute with whole wheat don’t use more than 50% whole wheat flour. Any addition of whole wheat flour will produce a more dense breadstick.
- Melted Butter: This is brushed on top after baking for that irresistible golden, garlicky flavor. Melt in the microwave.
- Garlic Powder: A simple way to add bold garlic flavor to the buttery topping.
Optional Toppings
Add a little extra flavor to your breadsticks with one of the following optional topping ideas:
Grated Parmesan Cheese: For a cheesy twist, sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan over the breadsticks right after brushing on the melted butter.
Italian Seasoning: Add a sprinkle of Italian seasoning to give your breadsticks a flavorful, herbed finish.
Everything Bagel Seasoning: Try sprinkling everything bagel seasoning on top of the melted butter.
Cinnamon Sugar: Replace the garlic butter with melted butter and sprinkle with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar for a dessert-like version that’s perfect for dipping in icing or Nutella.
No Mixer? No Problem!
You can make this in either a stand mixer or by hand. If you want to make by hand, you’ll need a large mixing bowl to stir it all together with a wooden spoon. Once it becomes too difficult to stir with a spoon, you can switch to your hands. Proceed to kneading with your hands on a clean, lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes.
Shortcut for Faster Breadsticks
These breadsticks are ready to eat in just less than 90 minutes. If you need to speed things up, you can allow your breadsticks to rise in a warm place by preheating your oven to 100 degrees F. Allowing your dough to rise in this setting will cut your rising time by about half. Just be sure to remove your breadsticks from the oven before preheating the oven fully for baking. The fastest you can make this recipe using this trick is about 50 minutes.
Perfectly Shaped Breadsticks
Using a kitchen scale to weigh your dough and divide it evenly is the best way to get even breadsticks. For extra precision, you can use a ruler to measure the length of your breadsticks and ensure uniformity.
When shaping, use your palms to gently roll each piece of dough on a clean, dry surface, applying light, even pressure. If the dough starts to resist or tear, let it rest for a few minutes to relax the gluten before continuing.
Pull Apart Breadsticks
For pull-apart breadsticks with a softer texture, you can bake them in a 9×13-inch pan instead of a baking sheet. After shaping the dough into ropes, arrange them side by side in the pan, leaving just a small gap between each breadstick to allow for rising.
Freezer Instructions
Freezing the Dough: After shaping the breadsticks, place them on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Transfer to a freezer bag and store for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, thaw the dough at room temperature, let it rise, and then bake as directed.
Freezing Baked Breadsticks: Once fully baked and cooled, store them in a freezer-safe bag for up to 2 months. Reheat in the oven at 350°F for 5–7 minutes or until warmed through.
Storage Instructions
If you somehow have leftover breadsticks, store them in an airtight container or plastic bag at room temperature for up to 3 days. To reheat, wrap them in foil and warm in a 350°F oven for 5–7 minutes to restore their soft texture. Microwave 5 to 10 seconds at a time.
More bread recipes to serve on the side…
Rapid-Rise Skillet Rolls
55 mins
Flaky Old Fashioned Biscuits
25 mins
Rustic Garlic Parmesan Herb Bread
1 hr 55 mins
These were wonderful, the dough is so easy to work with, didn’t get much lift on the second rise but the magic happened in the oven, so nice and tender. I made half into breadsticks and half I wrapped around mozza cheese sticks for stuffed crazy bread like at my sons favourite pizza place, total winner! Thank you!
These were amazing! I randomly decided to attempt to add breadsticks to my dinner and I’m glad I stumbled across this recipe! They’re delicious and easy!
These were beyond delicious. Thank,you.
Bread sticks tasted great and everyone went back for seconds! I appreciated the thorough and easy to follow instructions.
Made these for the first time. Will definitely be making them again. Rolled out half of them and put pepperoni inside. Made other half into bread sticks ,added garlic butter and course salt. Delicious!
If you are looking for an easy-to-follow, fluffy, and delicious. breadstick recipe, then this is definitely the one to use! I had absolutely no trouble making these despite my past failures to make other types of bread. I did not have any olive oil, so I substituted it for vegetable oil and the breadsticks still came out just fine (which was a relief)! I made these for my vegan parents as well and used plant butter for the coating. Thank you for the recipe, and I will be using this from now on!
Soft and delicious!! We loved these breadsticks. Thank you for a fantastic recipe.
These breadsticks were so easy to make and turned out very nice! We loved them.
Good base for bread sticks. Tried them with the recipe 100% and this time added my own. They were nice and pillowy and we loved that. This time I added a little more salt and some roasted garlic to the bread while mixing. Then I made a roasted garlic butter to melt on top with the herbs and parm cheese.
My go to recipe. So easy and delicious. I mix dough in my stand mixer which makes it even easier. Thank you!!!
Hi made these today. Had to add an extra 1/2 cup flour and the dough was still a little sticky. But with lightly dusted hands and board was able to roll our easily. Didn’t want to add too much as that tends to make bread dry. I lightly greased the pans but will use parchment next time. The bottoms were quite brown after 14 minutes. Baked for total 15 minutes at 18 maybe burnt bottoms. I would suggest definitely adding the parm and Italian seasoning to the toppings. I like another reviewer’s idea of brushing with roasted garlic butter. Anyway will enjoy these tonight with Italian stuffed peppers. I will test out the reheating instructions then. Thank you Nataliya going to check out your video perhaps should have done that first!!