I'll admit it, I'm a HUGE sucker for snack sticks, especially Pretz. I also love other brands of snack sticks like Pocky & Rocky - but Pretz is my ultimate flavor because it comes in a whole series of flavors. From shrimp to salads to even shark fin flavors - they have it all.

The only problem is that we don't get every delicious flavor out there here in Malaysia. I especially love Larb-flavored Pretz, larb being a Thai salad, and so far, only available in Thailand.

You might have remembered me trying my hand at grissini (italian breadsticks) a while back, and from that recipe, I modified and made some alterations to create biscuit sticks that will be much crunchier (as this recipe does not require yeast) and best of all - you can make ANY FLAVOR you want.

Flavoring can come from curry powder, chilli powder, salt, pepper, chives, garlic - the sky's the limit. However, I decided to make a very basic salted black pepper flavor for mine (I'm a total sucker for black pepper as well).


INGREDIENTS

• 200g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sugar 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup water
• coarse black pepper, salt (or insert any other ingredient for the flavor you want)

Combine all the ingredients above in a bowl and mix it together. Knead until it becomes dough. If the dough turns out to be a little sticky, add about 10-20g of flour to reduce the stickiness. Dough should be soft but not sticky.




Fold it over a few times and knead until it becomes nice and soft. Then, this will be where you will add your flavoring. For me, I added the coarse black pepper.




Sprinkle the black pepper over the dough and fold. Repeat until the dough contains the desired amount of black pepper you want. Just be sure to put enough because bear in mind, the dough will be rolled out into thin sticks, and you'd want each stick to have enough flavor.




Roll out your sticks. It may be thin or thick depending on your preference. The sticks don't have to be perfectly straight - it's nearly impossible to achieve that unless you have a machine at home. Just try to keep a consistent length and thickness. You can also make it slightly fancier by giving your rolled-out sticks a little twist to create that twisted stick look.

Now to lightly salt them. I didn't add the salt into the dough with the black pepper because too much salt will ruin the taste. What I did was to sprinkle a very teeny bit of salt in a line and roll a stick over it to make it stick. That way, each stick gets just the right amount of saltiness. If you're using chilli or curry powder, you can skip mixing the flavoring in with the dough and just roll your sticks over the powder.

The next part is to pop your sticks into the oven. Bake them at 170°C for about 25-30 minutes until they're slightly brown. Always be sure to make a test batch with 5 sticks to see which settings work best with your oven. Once it's done, take them out, let it cool for 5 minutes, then store them in an airtight container.




Light and crunchy! :) Enjoy!