Same-Day Twisted Ciabatta Breadsticks

With a chewy golden crust and soft, airy interior, these ciabatta twisted breadsticks are the perfect combination of textures. The twisted shape doesn’t just look pretty — it also creates nooks and crannies inside the breadsticks that make them perfect for soaking up my best-ever spaghetti sauce and popular tomato-herb olive oil bread dip.

Make these homemade breadsticks the same day for warm-from-the-oven breadsticks ready in under 3 hours!

This homemade breadsticks recipe will make about 10-12 ciabatta breadsticks about 11-13" long. They're pretty big! We are absolutely living for a chunky breadstick moment here.

About These Ciabatta Breadsticks

I used a slightly smaller (and slightly faster) version of my popular soft-baked ciabatta bread recipe to make these ciabatta breadsticks. No fancy flours or specialty ingredients needed, and the recipe clocks in at just under 3 hours, with a lot of hands-off resting time.

Basically, if you've made my full size ciabatta recipe before, this will be very familiar to you! To make these soft breadsticks, I reduced the amount of water in that recipe to make the dough a little easier to cut and shape.

The fun, twisted shape of these ciabatta breadsticks is by far my favorite thing about them. I think you're going to love it about them too!

Ciabatta dough is very bubbly and airy, and twisting them before baking compresses the gluten structure, helping control the way they bake. This ensures you don't end up with any sneaky giant pockets of air hiding inside. It also gives these soft breadsticks a nice chewy texture, and makes them fun to pull apart into pieces for dunking in dips or seasoned oils!

Ingredient Notes

Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make these ciabatta breadsticks. See recipe card (at the end of the post) for ingredient quantities.

Instructions

Once you mix the breadstick dough together, there's four 15-minute resting periods and one 45-minute resting period, so the amount of active work time is minimal.

I like to use a square Cambro container for mixing and folding this ciabatta dough — it helps train the dough to hold a square shape which makes it easier to cut later on. You can absolutely use a large mixing bowl instead.

To mix the dough, whisk the dry ingredients together, then add the warm water and olive oil.

Scrape any excess flour or dough off the sides of the bowl, and gather the sticky dough together at the bottom of the bowl.

Resting and Coil Folding (Bulk Fermentation)

After the dough has been mixed, it's time to let it rest for a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes. During the first hour, you're going to periodically build strength and structure into the dough using a technique called folding.

You can do coil folds (like in my soft ciabatta recipe), or stretch-and-folds (like in my overnight focaccia recipe), whichever is easier for you.

Don't feel overwhelmed by this — it's basically a 1 hour and 45 minute resting period period, with folds every 15 minutes just for the first hour. That's four sets of folds total. Then 45 minutes where you don't have to do anything but remember to preheat the oven. Lucky you!

The first hour starts immediately after mixing the dough. The dough will rest for 15 minutes, and then you'll do the first set of folds. Each "set" of folds consists of four coil folds OR four stretch-and-folds.

Which type of folds you choose is really up to you — pick whichever is easiest for your hands! You can even alternate which ones you use between sets.

On the first set of folds the ciabatta dough will feel very weak and might even tear. That's okay. Just keep going. It will continue to strengthen as you keep folding.

Regardless of which type of folds you do, on the first fold, the dough will be relaxed and easier to stretch. By the final fold in each set, it won't stretch it quite as much. That means the gluten network is getting stronger. Each time you do a set of folds the dough will feel smoother and stronger.

After the final set of folds, cover the bucket and let the dough rest for 45 minutes. At this point we want the dough to develop some nice air bubbles. The dough may not quite double in size, but it should increase in size and look airy at the end of this resting period.

Cutting and Twisting Ciabatta Breadsticks

Preheat the oven during the 45-minute rest. These soft breadsticks don't need any time to rest after you cut them, so the oven should be ready to go when they are!

Dust the top of the breadstick dough in the bowl with flour so it doesn't stick to the bowl as you tip it out. Then turn the dough out of the bowl and onto a generously floured surface so that the sticky, un-floured side is facing up.

Dust the sticky top side of the dough lightly with flour too. Use flat hands to gently smooth the ciabatta into a large rectangle.

Gently lift and stretch the edges and corners if you need to (a metal bench scraper can be helpful here!), but don't try to force the dough, you don't want to deflate it too much.

Use a sharp knife or bench scraper in an up-and-down motion to make your cuts (don't try to slide the blade along the counter or the sticky dough will stick to it), and leave the sticky cut edges facing open. Dust lightly with flour only if needed.

Use very little pressure when you do the twist, the dough is very soft and airy and you don't want to flatten it! You can also use one hand to gently hold one end in place and use the other hand to lift and twist the dough.

TIP: When you lift the homemade breadsticks onto the sheet pan, do not lift from the two ends or gravity will stretch them out. Bring the sheet pan as close as you can so you don't have to move them very far. Gently scrunch the two ends together so you're supporting most of its weight in your hands, then move your hands apart as you deposit the breadstick on the sheet pan.

Do you need to do the twist? Nope! Skip it and you'll end up with airier, thicker ciabatta breadsticks. You could even bake tear-apart ciabatta breadsticks by cutting the dough directly on the parchment lined baking sheet you'll bake them on and not separating the breadsticks from one anoher before you bake them. You may need to add 2-3 minutes to the bake time if you go this route.

Baking Ciabatta Breadsticks

Depending on how soft or crunchy you want your breadsticks to be, I've provided two different baking times. When the ciabatta breadsticks are done they will be lightly golden brown in the spots peeking out between the floury stripes.

Right out of the oven, the ciabatta breadsticks will feel hard to the touch. That's normal. They will soften as they cool.

Let the soft ciabatta breadsticks cool for at least 10 minutes before eating them. You can let them cool on the sheet pan or transfer them to a cooling rack, either is fine.

Adding Other Flavors

If you want to customize the flavor of your homemade breadsticks, go for it! You just want to make sure they don't disrupt the structure of the dough.

The simplest way to do this is to simply sprinkle the twisted breadsticks with your favorite seeds or cheeses right before baking. This works for things like sesame seeds, poppyseeds, everything bagel seasoning, flaky salt, cheddar or parmesan cheese, etc.

The second easiest way to change the flavor of your homemade ciabatta breadsticks is to replace the olive oil with an infused olive oil or other oil with a flavor you like. Garlic oil, scallion oil, sesame oil, etc. are all good options here!

If you want to add a lightweight ingredient like herbs or spices, you can mix up to 1½ teaspoons into the olive oil and add them directly to the dough.

To incorporate heavier, denser ingredients like finely chopped olives, peppers, roasted garlic cloves or garlic confit, or coarsely grated cheese, you can add up to 55 grams (20% by baker's percentage) during during the third set of folds when the dough is strong enough to support them. To do this, sprinkle the ingredients over the surface of the dough and do 4-6 stretch-and-folds to seal them inside.

Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• An overnight rise: If you want to bake these ciabatta breadsticks the next day, you can pop the dough in the fridge immediately after finishing the coil folds. Shape and bake them the next day.
• Ambient temperature and dough rising: Room temperature is generally considered to be around 70°-72°F. If your dough is rising slowly and your kitchen is cold, find somewhere warmer to put your dough during the resting period. If your kitchen is very warm, your dough might be ready to cut into breadsticks after 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes! Pay attention to the dough and adjust as needed.
• A note on oven temperature: Most ovens do not run true to temperature! In my past three apartments my ovens were off from anywhere to 50° to 20° and all of them would tell me they were at the right temperature 15 minutes before they actually were. Baking at the right temperature is crucial. Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is accurate!
• If the dough seems too wet, my first piece of advice is to just keep going with the recipe. This is a wet dough and many of my recipe testers told me they thought their dough was too wet when it was actually just right. If your dough is SO wet that on the second set of folds it doesn't feel any stronger and is tearing in half every time you try to lift it, then you can dust in a tiny amount of flour. But really try to avoid adding in more flour during the folding stage unless you absolutely need to.

📖 Recipe