Parmesan Garlic Breadsticks

My mom has a bread machine that she's never used and I've always wanted one, so she let me borrow it a few weeks ago. Sunday, I had some extra time and wanted to try making breadsticks. It was nice to dump all the ingredients in there and let the bread machine do all the work, but I don't know that it would have been much extra work for me to just mix the dough up myself. Enjoying baking as much as I do, it's really no big deal to take a few extra steps. I will say though, for days when I am trying to do a lot of multi-tasking and short on time, the bread machine would certainly come in handy.

These were my first batch of homemade breadsticks I've ever made, they were incredibly easy to make and I'm going to go out on a limb and say they are also one of the best ever! I got 20 breadsticks out of my batch, thought I might even have enough leftover to freeze for another meal....yeah right. Between the 5 of us, we ate almost every one of them.

Serves me right, next time I'll have to make at least a double batch if we want any leftovers. Do you use a bread machine on a regular basis? If so, feel free to share any of your favorite recipes. I do want to continue trying out some new things as this was my first experience with one.

Parmesan Garlic Breadsticks

Ingredients:
1 c water
1/4 c olive oil
3 c flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast
Melted butter, for brushing breadsticks
Parmesan-Garlic seasoning (or simply used grated Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning together)

Directions:
Pour all ingredients into bread machine in order listed and run on the dough cycle. Once dough is finished, roll dough out onto a greased baking sheet (I happened to use a 15x10-inch one). Cut dough into 20-24 pieces, cover and let rise for 1 hour. Bake at 350 for 15-20 mins. Immediately brush with melted butter and sprinkle parmasean-garlic seasoning on top. Or you can sprinkle with Italian seasoning and then parmasean cheese if you can't find a combo blend.

* I did try baking the breadsticks with the butter and seasoning but thought they had more flavor if you added seasoning after they were done baking. You can do it whichever way you'd like though.

Slightly adapted from: Money Saving Mom