Mandarin Breadtwists

We offer these soft, baked breadtwists to our guests as beginning nibbles. They are also wonderful alongside soup or sandpots, where a bit of fragrant bread is welcome. I doubt there is any traceable precedent for them in Chinese cookbooks. However, I’d wager that some northern Chinese bread maker made something similar at one time, and that they’re not merely a product of my lone, bread-loving imagination.