Introduction: Homemade Garlic Knots

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This recipe is made using the dough or pizza dough cycle on a bread machine, but can be adjusted for use with a stand mixer or for kneading by hand. My bread machine is only good for kneading so I use it for mixing doughs, proofing, and nothing else.

The dough recipe can also be bypassed and replaced with pre-made pizza dough from the store if you're in a time crunch.

The most recent occasion I made garlic knots was for a friends' birthday. They travel well! I baked the knots for about 10 minutes at my house and then finished the rest of the baking at my friends', topped and served. It worked out very well!

Step 1: Ingredients

Knot Dough

2 tbs olive oil

1 cup warm water (additional 1/4 cup of water may be needed, add during mixing cycle if dough is dry)

2 cups AP Flour

1 cup bread flour

3 tbs dry milk *optional*

1 tbs sugar

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsp or 1 packet instant yeast

Garlic Butter

1/2-1 stick of unsalted butter

1/8 tsp garlic salt *to taste*

1-3 freshly minced cloves of garlic

fresh basil

Additional Topping

Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese or Satori Rum Runner (found at Whole Foods)

Dried hot pepper flakes

Marinara sauce



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Note: "To taste" means to increase or decrease an ingredient based on your flavor preferences. It's always a good idea to taste test as you go AND to start with lower amounts of an ingredient if you're unsure.

Step 2: Garlic Butter

The garlic butter topping is the first step because it can be made in advance and for what I consider "best results" should be in a semi-softened (not liquid) state before adding to the knots.

Mince a couple garlic cloves and dice the basil, then set both aside.

In a small pan, add the butter, garlic, and garlic salt and cook over low heat---make sure to be constantly stirring so that the garlic doesn't burn. Equally important, don't let the butter brown. The purpose of this is to gently cook the garlic and infuse the flavors.

After 8-10 minutes, remove the garlic butter from heat. Add the basil to the butter mixture and allow to cool. You can either transfer the butter to a jar/container OR when the butter starts to solidify, transfer the butter to a piece of plastic wrap, wrap tightly and refrigerate until you need it.

Step 3: Dough

When using a bread machine, I've always found that adding ingredients liquid first seems to work best. Yeast is always last. So add all the wet ingredients, then dry, and set your bread machine to the pizza or dough cycle. On my machine the difference between the two settings is about 35 minutes, so I generally use the pizza cycle.

Step 4: Shape

Divide your dough into equal size pieces. This recipe makes between 12-16 knots depending on how big you want them.

Once your pieces are divided, roll each piece between your hands to make a "rope". Then I tie the dough into a knot and place on your lightly greased cookie sheet.

Step 5: Bake

Pre-heat your oven to 350 and bake for 13-18 minutes. You want the top of the knots to be very lightly tanned.

Step 6: Top!

As soon as you remove the knots from the oven immediately spread the garlic butter on each and top with cheese. Eat and enjoy!

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