basic pizza crust, flat bread & breadsticks

This is a basic recipe that I used all growing up. I especially remember it on a rainy day...
 I used it mostly for breadsticks. I have such fond memories of making home-made breadsticks on a rainy day. There is just not much better than walking into the house and being welcomed to the smell of delicious, warm bread. However, I didn’t know anything about making bread back then. I just added the ingredients that my mom told me to. I didn’t know about softening the yeast, or even letting the bread rise before baking it. But, everyone still seemed to love it anyway. Now, when I look back, I can remember the breadsticks being flat and kind of  heavy and doughy, and chewy, but, not the kind of chewy that you ‘want’. If I ate one of those breadsticks now, I would probably only eat one and be done. I think the biggest trick is that I always added 8 cups of flour. Ech! So, unfortunately, I’ll eat a lot more than one of the breadsticks that we make these days. Hmmmm… maybe I should go back to the old days and not use the tricks I’ve learned…. Hah.
I have learned that you can take basic bread recipes and use them for many different types of breads…. So, experiment and try lots of things!

3 cups warm water
2 TBS yeast
2 TBS sugar
2 TBS oil
1 TBS salt
6-8 cups flour
Add ground flax, spices, shredded cheeses, or anything that complements your meal.

So, like most of my bread doughs--I rarely measure the flour. It is best to just get a 'feel' for the dough. The stickier the dough is, the lighter the bread will be. A dough that doesn't have enough flour will sink and be very flat. If that is what you are going for--great!

Soften your yeast in water and sugar. Let it become foamy--this is great way to make sure your yeast WILL work. If your yeast has not become foamy after 5 minutes, it will likely not improve. (for instant yeast)
Add your other ingredients, but be experimental. If I'm going to be adding a lot of cheese or anything with oils in them to the dough or the top, I don't usually add oil to the dough. Salt, however---will drastically change the results of your dough if you use it or leave it out.

Here's some of the variations that I use often: Parmesan, (fresh or the green container kind) Italian seasoning, garlic, (minced, fresh or granulated) basil, rosemary, ground flax etc. It just depends on what meal I'm making it for.

Pizza Crusts: Roll to preferred size and fork it before baking crust.  Bake at 400-425. If you have a pizza pan with holes in it--you can just place the rolled dough on to a greased pan (you can also use cornmeal instead of grease) and then put your ingredients on it and bake without pre-baking the crust.  Sometimes, I will fork the dough and bake it slightly and then add my ingredients so that I can have fresher, hotter pizzas for guests.

Flat Bread: Roll to preferred size and bake at 400-425 for 8-10 minutes. Use pizza pans with holes or depending on the pan you have--you can decide whether it will need to be greased or not. After baking, spread very lightly with olive oil and broil slightly to get a nice brown top/bottom. Cut into triangles. Perfect for hummus!

Breadsticks: (Flat or risen) Roll out and then use a pizza slicer to slice into sticks. Place on greased pan. Sometimes I like to let them rise and then bake, sometimes I like to bake them flat, depending on what's for dinner. My favorite combination for these breadsticks is to grind flax and add parmesan & garlic to the dough before the flour. Then sprinkle parmesan or sesame seeds on top. Bake at 400 for 12-14 minutes.

This is the kind of thing that you can modify and make however you want--with whatever you want. Play with it! Let the kids roll out their own. I constantly use this recipe, making it with 100% whole wheat and people love it!