Homemade Garlic Knots
There are certain Italian foods that just aren’t the same when you find them outside of the Tri-State area. In fact, as far as I know, garlic knots and pasta pizza do not exist in Texas. Since there was a severe famine of garlic knots in the South, I learned to make them at home, and now my husband prefers them even over authentic New Jersey garlic knots.
It’s a pretty simple process and very easy to quadruple the recipe for large dinners or parties. If you already know how to make bread from scratch it will be even easier, but it’s definitely a recipe that is perfect for beginners. You can also use the same recipe for pizza dough, calzone dough, and it even turns out really crispy Italian loaves in a bread machine.
The recipe is easy to memorize.
1 Tbs oil
1 Tbs sugar or honey
1 Tbs instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 Cup warm water
Bread flour – you can also use regular white flour, or you can use half whole wheat flour. More than half whole wheat will make really hard, dense rolls.
This will make about 15 garlic knots. I don’t put an amount for the flour because you really should do it by eye for the best consistency. But it will probably be somewhere around 4 cups.
To quadruple:
1/4 Cup oil
1/4 Cup sugar or honey
1/4 Cup instant yeast
4 Cups warm water
1 Tbs salt
This will make about 60 garlic knots.
In a large bowl, pour in warm water, oil, sugar, yeast, and salt. Mix. Begin adding flour and stir, first it will be goopy liquid, then thick. Usually I stop adding flour when it still sticks to my hands but can form a loosely shaped ball. If it’s a shaggy dough that’s also okay but I find those come out less fluffy on the inside. Knead it a bit until it seems throughly mixed.
Let it rise in a warm spot until it has doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Cover your hands with flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and roll golf ball sized rolls. You can stretch them out and tie a knot if you want the literal garlic knot instead, but I’ve never had any complaints about the ball shape. Put them in the oven at 425 for about 12 minutes. They should come out without much browning or hardness, you want a soft ball with a slightly firm outside.
Now for the garlic butter sauce. You can do this the easy way or the super easy way.
Easy way:
Butter
Minced garlic from a jar
Dried parsley (optional)
Grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Melt butter in a pan on stove on medium heat (1 stick for original recipe, 4 sticks for quadrupled recipe. But you can actually use however little or much butter you want.). When it is sizzling, add minced garlic. Stir until the garlic is cooked but do not let it burn. When the rolls are done, I like to let them cool slightly and then put them into a bowl or a gallon sized plastic bag, and then pour the garlic butter over them, stirring/shaking to mix. You can then top them with parsley and grated cheese. They go really well with any dinner, especially pasta fagioli, spaghetti and meat sauce, or fettuccine alfredo.
