I wanted to continue this month’s Wizard of Earthsea menu with a fun little item we hear about during Ged’s revelry with his friends at a festival on the wizards’ island, Roke. The boys are playing around with various spells, and as Ged’s friend Vetch causes the leftover chicken bones from his dinner to turn into owls and fly around, Ged uses magic to fashion breadcrumb arrows that he sends after the birds. I loved the idea of bread arrows, so I created a recipe for Parmesan garlic basil breadsticks using premade pizza dough and added arrowheads with some extra dough.
They turned out delicious! Everyone in our family loved them, especially the baby. He wouldn’t let me walk by the tupperware container I had them in without grunting and reaching for a piece. I’d say that’s a pretty rave review! 😉
A
Enchanted Breadstick Arrows: An AWR Original Recipe
“Now and then [Vetch] tossed away a chicken bone, which turned to an owl and flew hooting among the netted star-lights. Ged shot breadcrumb arrows after the owls and brought them down, and when they touched the ground, there they lay, bone and crumb, all illusion gone.”
— A Wizard of Earthsea
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 11-oz can thin crust Pillsbury pizza dough
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 large basil leaves
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh pepper
- 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese
Makes 9-10 breadsticks
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.On a large cutting board, unroll your pizza dough and stretch it a bit to create a 10″x12″ rectangle. Brush on your olive oil, making sure to spread it over the whole expanse of dough (it’s ok if it’s a thin layer). Place pinches of garlic all over the dough and spread them out with the back of a spoon until the dough is evenly coated. Chop your basil leaves into bits and scatter them across the dough. Sprinkle on your salt, pepper, and Parmesan.
- Cut the dough into strips approximately 1″ wide with a pizza cutter. Your 2 end strips will be uneven on one side, but that’s ok (we’ll use these for arrowheads). It’s ok if the outer strips are a little too wide too—whatever you have to do to make sure your inner strips are straight and an even width.
- Lift all but your 2 outer strips onto the baking sheets and gently twist the strips into spirals one at a time. Getting a nice clean spiral can take a little practice, but I found the best technique was to start at one end of a strip and work one twist at a time, lifting the end of the strip with each twist. This helps keep it from unraveling and stretching too much. Once you reach the middle, go to the other end and repeat the process until you reach the center. You’ll want to make sure you keep twisting in the same direction, even when you switch sides, or you’ll wind up with untwisted gaps.
- Using your pizza cutter, cut your remaining two strips into 2″ long pieces using alternating diagonal angles to create triangles. Place 1 triangle onto the end of each breadstick, pinching the triangle and stick well together to keep them from coming apart while baking. You’ll want to place the arrowheads on alternating ends (one pointing up, the next pointing down, and so on) so that they aren’t too close together while baking.
- Place the baking sheets in the oven and bake for about 13 minutes or until golden brown, flipping and rotating the pans halfway through.
- Serve warm at a festival on the island of wizards!
These go great with soup, especially the Shadow Monster Black Bean Soup I posted last week!
Check out my other recipes that use premade pizza dough!
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