Easy Homemade Garlic Knots

How about making hot & delicious Garlic Knots fresh from your oven in under 20 minutes start to finish? 

 

As a tween/teen one of my favorite treats were the Garlic Knots from the local pizza place.  My friends an I would take the 15-20 minute walk to the local shops, stop at Pizza City and order a few knots then lick our fingers on the walk home. Maybe it was the taste of freedom, of being on our own with a little bit of money as we began to spread our wings and tinker at the adults we were to soon become...but those hot &buttery bites were the bomb!

Flash forward to today...I often have a houseful of kids hanging out, ages 10-13, Garlic Knots are one of those quick dishes that can a crowd of kids look forward to with eager anticipation and devour with enthusiasm!  Plus they then all think you are a rock star because you made them, lol!

You know I like making people happy through food :)

Personally, I'd choose some steaming hot hunks of deliciously cooked dough slathered in garlic and butter over pizza any day!  I like to dip mine in a little bit of pizza sauce, mmmm!

Maybe its a Philly thing? I grew up in Philly...you know home of the soft pretzels (yum!) so to me getting my hands on a hot crispy dough in the form of a pretzel, garlic knot or Stromboli even is a magically delicious experience...still! !

I don't bother making my own pizza dough, and I don't buy it frozen from a store.  Instead, I pop in my local pizza place and get 1-2 disks of pizza dough. No mess, no work, no wait.  I use it for a variety of our favorite dishes like breakfast pizzas, flatbreads and pizza bites.

My pizza guys take each disk of dough out, love it up for a minute with a little extra flour, nestle it into a box and home we go....for $2.50 per dough...you can beat it!  I let the pros make it for us!

A hot oven plus the dough, butter, garlic and seasonings are all you really need to make yourself some Garlic Knots and if you want to load them up with some fresh herbs, cheese and butter like I did the last time I make them then goooo right ahead, betcha no one will complain!

Homemade Garlic Knots
1 disk of pizza dough
2 TBS olive or grapeseed oil
1 stick butter
4-5 cloves of garlic
Kosher salt & pepper
1-2 TBS chopped parsley
Optional: Pizza sauce
Extras for Loaded Garlic Knots: Mozzarella cheese & crispy bacon

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place your dough on a clean, floured surface.  Using a pizza cutter cut the dough in half,  Then pick up the dough and work it a little with your hands to stretch it out.  I am not a pizza pro which means no throwing it up in the air for me.  Instead I think of it as a steering wheel and turn, turn turn the dough allowing its own weight to stretch it out a bit. until its about 1/2 inch thick and in rectangle shape .

Cut the dough into strips about 8 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.  To shape into a knot simply...gently tie it as you would a shoe by making an "x" then looping one end through, pull it gently until the knot is loosely formed, then tuck the ends under and place it on your lightly floured baking sheet, pizza tray or stone.  Repeat with the other half of the dough. Be sure to leave room between each knot since they will rise while baking.

Brush the knots with a bit of oil, then pop them into the oven.

Melt the butter, mince the garlic and combine the two into a small bowl.  Season with some salt and pepper, stir it up well and if you like add in 1 TBS chopped parsley.  Once the knots begin to turn golden, remove them from the oven (10-14 minutes...depending on size and preference of the color of the crust).  Immediately dunk them one by one (or use a pastry brush) into the butter mixture and serve.

To make the loaded Garlic Knots 2-3 minutes before the garlic knots are done to your liking, pull them out of the oven and quickly brush them with the garlic butter mixture, sprinkle them with Mozzarella cheese and place them back into the oven until done.  Pull them out, brush them again with a bit of the garlic butter mixture, sprinkle with bacon and some extra parsley and serve.

 We are garlic lovers, so the fresh taste of garlic on these knots is a welcomed bite.  If you want less of a "bite" from the garlic, simply melt your butter in a small pot along with your minced garlic.  A couple minutes of heat will tame the garlic down a bit.

Enjoy!