Cheese, bread, and garlic… please name a better combo. These Cheesy Garlic Knots are perfect as an appetizer, side dish, snack, or maybe even a meal. Pair with some marinara and you are in for a treat 🙂
This base of this recipe is my Homemade Pizza Dough, which I also use to make these Lasagna Calzones. It’s very versatile and super easy to make, all while saying you’ve accomplished making homemade dough! In traditional pizza recipes you want your oven very hot in order to get that crispy crust. For these garlic knots, I want the dough to be soft so the temp is lowered significantly to provide a slower, softer bake.
Now let’s move on to what makes these finger licking spectacular: the herby garlic butter. I use this mixture in the roles, brushed on top before baking and right after they come out, in case you didn’t get enough butter from the first two steps 🙂 If I have fresh basil and oregano from my garden then I will use those, but it’s very easy to use store bought Italian seasoning and it will taste just as delicious!
Assembly:
- You’re going to want to roll the dough out to be about 20 inches in length, 10 inches in height and about 2.5 inches wide. If you aren’t planning on stuffing them with cheese, you can cut them thinner and get about 10-12 cheese-less garlic knots out of this recipe. Both ways are delicious, but I can’t pass up warm bread and cheese!
- Above is a picture showing how to make these knots. Mine turn out more like pretzels, but you can easily stop after simply tying the knot.
These Cheesy Garlic Knots are a really fun party appetizer or meal or snack for the family. Recently I’ve been making these up and storing in the refrigerator and we eat them throughout the week! If you end up trying them, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Cheesy Garlic Knots
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 packet Instant yeast 2 ¼ teaspoons
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp olive oil
For the Herby Garlic Butter Sauce:
- 8 tbsp salted butter
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 1 ½ tsp Italian seasoning
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
Other ingredients:
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 14 oz bottle of pizza sauce or marinara
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
For the dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the packet of Instant yeast and warm water (think warm bath water). Add in honey and salt. Connect the dough hook and mix on lowest speed for 30 seconds until everything is combined.
- Gradually add in all 2 ½ cups of flour. As it is combining, add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and mix until combined. Allow mixture to beat on the lowest speed for 10 minutes. This works to knead the dough which means you don't have to knead it yourself!
- While the dough is kneading, take approximately 1 tablespoon of olive oil and use it to coat a large sized bowl. After the 10 minutes is up, the dough should be clinging to the dough hook. Use the finally tablespoon of olive oil to coat the bowl and place the dough int it.. Cover with a damp dish towel and let it sit in a warm, dark area for 1 hour to rise. I like to turn my oven onto the lowest temperature for 2 minutes and turn it off, and leave the dough there to rise.
- While the dough is preheating, mix up the garlic butter. Melt the butter and stir in all of the ingredients. Set aside.
For assembly:
- After the hour is up and your dough has almost doubled in size, pull the dough from the oven and pour out onto a floured surface. Roll out the dough to the desired thickness, approximately 20-inch x 10-inch. Cut about 8 strips width-wise, about 2.5 inches thick.
- Drizzle about 1 teaspoon of garlic butter in the middle of each strip of dough. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on each strip, leaving about ½ inch of dough on each end without cheese. Flip the dough over the cheese to seal.
- Tie each strip into knots (reference the photos in the blog on how to do so). Arrange the knots on a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart (you may need 2 baking sheets). Preheat the oven to 350° and let the dough rest until preheated.
- Before baking, brush each knot with the garlic butter sauce and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, brush with the rest of the garlic butter and sprinkle on parmesan cheese. Serve with marinara!
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