Garlic Knots

Homemade Garlic Knots

This homemade Garlic Knots recipe is a favorite of mine because it’s super easy to make, but it feels a little more special than regular old garlic bread or dinner rolls. It starts with a basic yeasted dough that is then divided, shaped, covered in yummy garlic butter, and baked to perfection.

You don’t need to be a bread baking expert to make this recipe—I’ve provided simple instructions for you to follow along with. But, if you really want to go quick and easy, you could even use premade pizza dough instead. From there, just shape, add the garlic butter, and bake as directed. 

Serve these soft and fluffy Garlic Knots as a side dish for holiday dinners, weeknight meals, or even as a snack or appetizer along with warm marinara sauce or alfredo sauce.

Key Ingredients

• Water – you’ll need to use warm water to wake up your yeast.  It should be between 95-110 degrees F. 
• Yeast – we use active dry yeast in this recipe, which needs to be proofed.  (check out our Homemade White Bread recipe for more info on activating yeast).  If you use instant yeast, you can skip the proofing step and just mix the dough together, knead, and then let rise.
• Sugar – this recipe calls for white granulated sugar, but you could also substitute honey.
• Flour – this recipe uses all-purpose flour but you can also use bread flour.
• Butter – you can use either salted or unsalted butter. You’ll want to melt this and mix it with the garlic salt to add to the tops of each just before baking. If you want, you could add extra melted butter to the tops once they come out of the oven.
• Garlic Salt adds great garlic flavor without the hassle or chunks of garlic. If you don’t have garlic salt, you can combine half garlic powder and half salt.
• Parmesan Cheese – use finely grated Parmesan cheese for these rolls. 

How to Make Garlic Knots

1. Proof the yeast. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the warm water, yeast, and sugar and mix to combine.  Let sit for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast mixture starts to get bubbly.
2. Mix the dough. Add the oil, egg, and salt to the yeast mixture and mix to combine, then add 2 cups of flour and begin to mix on low speed using the dough hook attachment.  The dough will be very sticky. Continue to add up to 2/3 cup flour more to the dough until it starts to pull away from the edges of the bowl as you mix.  Once you have added all of the flour, mix on low speed for about 2 minutes to knead.  
3. Let the dough rise. Turn the mixer off, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, and let the dough rise until light and puffy, or about 30 minutes.
4. Shape the garlic knots. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease two muffin tins with butter or nonstick cooking spray. Transfer the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 18 equal pieces.  Roll each dough piece into an 8″ log.  Tie into a knot and place into the prepared muffin tin cup, tucking the ends under the knot. Repeat with all of the rolls.
5. Top with garlic butter. Melt the butter and mix in the garlic salt.  Brush the garlic butter over each dough knot, then add about 1/2 teaspoon of grated parmesan cheese to each.
6. Let the knots rise again. Cover the garlic knots loosely and rise again in a warm place for 15-30 minutes minutes, or until the rolls double in size.
7. Bake. Bake in your preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top and the internal temperature reads 190 degrees F.
8. Serve. Remove from the oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes, then brush the tops with additional melted butter if desired.  Enjoy!