Garlic Bread Sticks

I don't remember the last time I ordered pizza without a boxful of creamy garlic bread sticks with cheese dip. They are simply great for those evening or afternoon hunger pangs, when all your tongue wants is to taste something scrumptious, even when your stomach's not really empty. But it's always not viable to order garlic-flavoured bread sticks from outside. You can make them at home itself.

Now, for this recipe, you will need the following ingredients,

• Flour, 3 cups
• Milk, 1 cup
• Margarine, 1 stick
• Baking powder, 1 tbsp.
• Parsley, 1 tbsp. (dry)
• Garlic powder, 2 tsp.
• Salt, 1½ tsp.

Procedure
Take a large vessel and gradually add the flour, baking powder, parsley, half the garlic powder, and 1 tsp. salt to it, and then toss thoroughly so that all the ingredients get mingled well enough. Now add milk to this and then mix until you get a dough like formation. Knead some more and then flatten it out on a piece of wax paper into a rectangle of about 8½" x 12".

Let this stand aside for a bit, and in the meanwhile, melt the margarine in a 9" x 13" pan in an oven, at the set temperature of 425° F. Once the margarine is all molten, remove the pan from the oven, with oven mitts on, and mizzle the rest of the salt and garlic powder into it. Place the dough into the pan, and use a sharp pizza cutter to make thin dough strips. Start by cutting the dough into half, lengthwise and breadth wise, and then go on halving and further halving all the sections lengthwise, until you are left with plenty of slim long strips.

The margarine will then ooze out of the thin gaps between the strips, which is when you need to place the pan back into the oven at 425° F, and bake the bread sticks for something like 20 minutes. Once the bread sticks are all crispy and brownish, take them out, sprinkle the parsley and some grated Parmesan from top, and serve with a bowlful of plain cheese. I assure you, there will be no sound in the room other than that of people eating your homemade garlic bread sticks, until all is finished.

Now even though you can season with only garlic powder and salt, here's a more delectable concoction which will work to further the cause of your becoming the empress of the culinary world.

This you can use when you've made the dough like the one described above or are using simple ½" strips cut out of a loaf of French bread. You must have

• Garlic powder, 2 tbsp.
• Basil, 2 tsp.
• Marjoram, 2 tsp.
• Oregano, 2 tsp.
• Parsley, 2 tsp. (dried)
• Salt, 1½ tsp.

Procedure
Soften butter and add all the above ingredients to it. Mix well. Now, place the bread sticks on a foil and then pour the concoction evenly on the bread stick strips. Wrap the foil and place this preparation into the oven at a temperature of 375° F. Bake until the butter has melted completely and seeped into the bread sticks completely. See to it that the French bread sticks take on a brownish tinge on the edges as well.

For this you have to get

• Flour, 4 cups
• Water, 1½ cups (moderately warm)
• Butter, ¼ cup
• Oil, ⅛ cup
• Dry yeast, 1 tbsp.
• Sugar, 1 tbsp.
• Salt, ½ tbsp.

Procedure
First, pour the yeast and sugar into half a cup of lukewarm water, stir to dissolve, and wait for 5 minutes. After that add the yeast, oil, the rest of the water, and flour to this. Mix to get a dough-like formation and then knead for a while. Now, place this into a lubricated bowl and let it stand for approximately 60 minutes. Cover it while it rises to double its size.

After that, knead the dough some more, flatten it into a 12" x 18" rectangle, and then polish the surface thoroughly with butter. Use a pizza cutter to half the rectangle lengthwise, and then cut 8 equal strips breadth wise from each half. Now, you can twist these 16 strips one by one, and then bake it in the butter, garlic powder, and salt mixture, coating the strips well on all sides. Your 100% homemade garlic bread twisties are ready.

As is the case with every good thing under the sun, garlic bread sticks are loaded in calories, which can mount up to 150, out of which 36 come from fats, even in the case of a single bread stick serving. Even a single stick is loaded with approximately 1.5 grams of harmful saturated fats, which not only block major arteries in the body but also boosts the bad (LDL or low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels.

Also, an equal slice has about 22 grams of carbohydrates, of which, very little is constituted by energy giving sugars (3 grams) and metabolism aiding dietary fibers (1 gm). It also has about 5 grams of proteins, which however, is needed by the body for more or less all the vital functions. So, as is obvious, it is recommended that you refrain from gorging on garlic bread sticks on a regular basis.

Once in a while is fine, especially during parties, as it makes for rather toothsome appetizers. Also, try to make them at home, rather than order from outside, as at home you can use margarine instead of butter, which as we all know is a healthier option.

For instance, if you are using French bread sticks along with margarine to make your garlic bread sticks, you can cut down on the saturated fat content by a great extent. It comes down to a meager 0.39 grams, along with the calories which shoot down to about 53 per stick.