I've been searching for recipes on how to make soft, chewy breadsticks like
one of my favorite local restaurants makes. The key for me is getting them
soft and chewy and serving them hot out of the oven, rather than the dry,
thin, wimpy variety that you get when you bake the premade refrigerated
breadstick dough from the grocery store.

After much experimentation, I've learned that the thickness of the
breadsticks makes a huge difference in getting them soft and chewy on the
inside. If they are made too thin, they get dried out and are not chewy. But
if you make them thicker, the inside stays moist and chewy, and the outside
starts to brown just a bit.

The best recipe I've found to make quick and easy breadsticks suggested
using refrigerated Pillsbury Pizza Crust dough that you buy in the tube. You
unroll it into one layer, then you slice them up into rectangles, bake them
until it just starts to brown, and top it with butter, grated parmesan
cheese and salt. This works OK, but the key to getting the breadsticks
thick enough -- I've found -- is to fold the pizza dough into a double
layer. So each breadstick is cut from a double layer of the premade pizza
dough, rather than the single layer that the recipe recommends. Problem is,
no matter what I've tried, the refrigerated dough is too rubbery when I
unroll it, and no matter how I try to join the two layers and work them
together, I can't get the layers to bond to each other. This makes for some
pretty funky breadsticks, because when they are done, the top half of the
breadstick separates from the bottom half.

So the question is, are there any tricks to working with refrigerated,
premade dough so it's more pliable, so you can work two thin layers into one
thick layer? Or if not, is there a better way to quickly and easily make
breadsticks so the dough can be as thick as you want? For instance, if I
bought frozen bread dough, is that easier to work with once it thaws out? Or
is it just as quick to make my own bread dough from scratch, and if so, what
would be a good recipe?

I know nothing about working with dough, as you can tell, so any advice
would be appreciated!! Also, I'd love to make whole-wheat breadsticks in
this same soft and chewy way, so if anyone has tips on a good way to do
that, or a good recipe for the dough, please let me know. I can find whole
wheat frozen dough at the grocery store, but I'm not sure if that would work
or if that dough would be pliable enough so that I could make the layer of
dough as thick as I want. Thanks for your help!


DK