Easy and Quick Homemade Breadsticks for Babies

My kids love a breadstick, but when I looked at the salt content of many of the high street supermarket versions I felt it was a bit high for me to be giving this to the children as a healthy alternative. I was buying breadsticks for babies and they loved them, but they are expensive and there is that salt content… I wanted to make baby breadsticks that would actually be suitable for my little ones to eat, but most of the breadstick recipes I was seeing contained yeast so took ages to make.

Breadsticks make a great snack and a great after school snack for kids which once the salt is taken out really don’t contain any food baddies and so I started making my own, but I don’t have time for proving…. So I came up with this super quick and easy breadstick for babies recipe. I am saying it is for babies as my kids loved them as babies especially when they were teething, but they still love them now as bigger kids. To be honest I love them too!

This baby breadstick recipe can be sweet or savoury depending on what you choose to add. I have included a few ideas below the main recipe which are all great breadsticks for babies except the honey one as babies under 12 months shouldn’t have honey.

The very best thing about this breadsticks for babies recipe is that it so easy that if you also have toddlers at home they can properly get involved and you have a messy play activity too!

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What you will need for homemade breadsticks

280g plain flour (you can switch this to wholewheat if you prefer)

3 tsps baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt (Leave this out all together for babies)

90g of unsalted melted butter

220g milk

The How:

Mix together the dried ingredients in a bowl. Make sure it is well mixed especially if you are adding the salt as you don’t want it to be all in one place

Slowly add the milk and mix until it starts to come together. I find I do usually need all of the milk and sometimes have needed a touch more
Gently knead the dough just enough to make it workable
Roll out the dough. It is quite a ‘tough’ dough so it really won’t roll that thin. You probably want it about 1/2 cm thick

Cut the dough into strips. These should be around 1 cm wide. I cut mine in half so that they are a smaller snack, but you can leave them long if you prefer

Put the melted butter into a baking tray and roll the breadsticks in the butter before putting them in the oven at 200 C for 10 mins (I check after 10 mins and sometimes they need another couple. They should be golden brown)
Cool on a wire rack and then get eating. They need to be stored in an airtight container and can be kept for a few days, but are best on the first day

Alternative versions of homemade breadsticks for babies

Add parmesan cheese to the dry ingredients mix. I would then definitely remove the salt altogether as Parmesan is salty. If I do this I also grate more Parmesan over the top of the dough just before I cut it and press gently so it gets stuck!
Replace some of the milk with my homemade tomato sauce with hidden vegetables. They get a lovely tomato taste and you are getting some veggies into the little ones too
Sweeten them up by adding chopped dried fruit such as apricot or strawberries into the dough. I chop the fruit small and add it into the dried ingredients mix so it gets well distributed throughout the dough. Remove the salt if doing this
If you prefer not to use butter you can line the tin with greaseproof paper and brush each one with olive oil
Sweeten them with honey (not suitable for babies under 1 year) Add 2 tbsp of honey to the dough along with the milk. You may need to reduce the milk volume. Just add slowly and stop once the dough has come together. Make sure the honey is well mixed through otherwise you will end up with some very plain homemade breadsticks and some very sweet ones!

If you have older kids then check out our other ideas for After School Snacks, but many of these are also fantastic for preschoolers.