A Homemade Garlic Knots recipe made completely from scratch! We’re keeping the prep simple, too: only 30 minutes of rise-time and there’s no mixer required!
For today’s recipe we start with my easy (from-scratch) pizza dough and add a few garlicky, buttery tweaks. Be sure to check out the video showing you exactly how I make garlic knots in my own kitchen, it’s just below the printable recipe!
As promised, today’s recipe for Garlic Knots is perfect for sopping up flavorful tomato sauce from your new favorite Baked Ziti.
I know that plenty of recipes for garlic knots start with pre-made dough, and I totally understand being in a rush sometimes, but nothing stacks up to the taste of a completely from-scratch recipe. Maybe I’m biased, but homemade is always better!
We start with a simple yeast dough. Don’t be intimidated if you don’t often bake with yeast (like I was for the longest time), this is a great recipe for beginners. If you can stir and can tie a knot, you can make this recipe.
Bread Flour vs All-Purpose Flour in Garlic Knots
You can use either bread flour or all-purpose flour when making garlic knots. Either one will work, but you will get slightly different results.
Bread flour is my preference for this recipe. Using bread flour will give your garlic knots a slightly more crisp exterior and a chewier interior. All-purpose flour will make them softer and fluffier. While I like my cake recipe to be soft and fluffy, I prefer my garlic knots to be a bit chewier and more like a breadstick, so I stick with bread flour here.
Make sure to brush them with just enough olive oil to coax them to turn a beautiful golden brown in the oven.
Melted Garlic Butter
Now let’s get to all that garlicky goodness I talked about earlier.
We are adding a bit of garlic powder (just half a teaspoon) into our dough, but most of the garlic flavor is going to come from our buttery garlic-infused topping. You’ll need just three ingredients for this topping:
- Butter (salted)
- Minced garlic
- Fresh basil
While your garlic knots are baking, combine your butter and garlic on the stove over low heat, cooking until the butter is melted and the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in fresh minced basil (parsley will also work).
Once your garlic knots are out of the oven, generously brush them with garlic butter before serving. The butter (and that flavor) will absorb into the garlic knots as they cool down just enough for you to dig in.
Enjoy!
Recipes that pair well with garlic knots:
How to Make Garlic Knots
Garlic Knots
Ingredients
- 2-2 1/3 cups bread flour* divided (250-295g)
- 1 packet instant yeast 2 1/4 teaspoons
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil + additional
- 3/4 cup warm water 105-115F [40-46C] (180ml)
Garlic Butter:
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter
- 3 cloves minced garlic about 1 ½ Tablespoons
- 1 Tablespoon minced fresh basil
- Grated parmesan cheese optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F (205C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine 1 cup (125g) of flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt, and garlic powder and stir well.
- Add olive oil and warm water and use a wooden spoon to stir until all ingredients are well-combined.
- Gradually add another 1 cup (125g) of flour. Add any additional flour as needed (I've found that sometimes I need as much as an additional 1/3 cup), stirring until the dough forms a cohesive, elastic ball and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the bowl (see video below recipe for visual). The dough will still be tacky but still should be manageable with your hands.
- Drizzle a separate, large, clean bowl generously with olive oil and use a pastry brush to brush up the sides of the bowl.
- Transfer your dough to prepared bowl and roll the dough through the oil until the entire surface of the dough is lightly coated with oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place on top of your oven to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
- Once the dough has risen, use your hands to gently deflate it and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Form into a log about 15” long and cut into 9 even pieces.
- Roll each piece between your palms and slightly pull it to form a rope about 8” long (lightly dust the dough with flour if needed).
- Carefully tie each rope into a knot (see video for guidance) and place on prepared baking sheet. Lightly brush with olive oil if desired.
- Set tray on top of warm oven and let garlic knots rest/rise for 5 minutes before baking.
- Transfer to oven and bake on 400F (205C) for 13 minutes or until just beginning to turn a light golden brown.
- While garlic knots are baking, prepare Garlic Butter.
Garlic Butter
- Combine butter and garlic in a small saucepan over medium/low heat. Cook until butter is melted and garlic is fragrant.
- Remove from heat and stir in minced basil. Once Garlic Knots have finished baking, use a pastry brush to generously brush garlic butter mixture over each knot. Sprinkle with grated parmesan, if desired.
- Enjoy served warm.
lisa says
I have made these twice now and they always turn out so good. This recipe is easy and the dough is easy to handle. Tysm for the recipe 😋
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lisa! 🙂
jamie says
Okay, so, we’ve made these a dozen times or more already, they’ve quickly become our favorite recipe. And I mean, yes, there are other recipes we make of yours that are more decadent or insane (like the banana bread, which is a little too delicious for mortal humans, or the garlic cheese drop biscuits, which we make only about once every *other* week) but this one is a good go-to because it’s SO delicious, but not as decadent, and a little more suitable for regular eating.
And our latest development? You’re going to love this… omg. Last time, we broke the dough into 8 separate pieces and then stuffed each piece with some tomatoes we had already oven-roasted (to remove some of the moisture and intensify the flavor) and some ricotta cheese (we have a ricotta cheese source that is to die for – this stuff: https://bellwetherfarms.com/product/whole-milk-basket-ricotta/ – pricey but SOOO worth it). Basically it was the most amazing thing ever. A bit like a tray of mini calzones, but if calzones were made out of garlic knots dough. The key was to just liberally slather olive oil onto our hands and the dough, and (we’re using bread flour) it didn’t stick at all, and it was easy to stuff, then pinch them shut, and put the pinched side on the bottom when they baked. They looked like little round rolls when they were done, and we still brushed them generously with melted butter with garlic powder in it. It was heaven. Seriously, SO good. And if it takes you a while to eat them, it’s not too bad, because unlike mozzarella, the cheese stays wonderful even when these have cooled. But of course they’re best warm!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jamie! That sounds absolutely incredible! I will have to check out that cheese some time and try making the mini calzones. 🙂
r says
Hey! Is it okay if I use active yeast instead?
Sam says
Yes that will work just fine here. 🙂
jamie says
that’s all we have, and we use it every time. as long as you wait for it to rise to about double the original size, you’re good. but it will probably be longer than with instant yeast. though we do actually use the method she talks about in one of the other recipes, of adding the sugar to the water before microwaving it and then adding the yeast to the warm water and after it gets foamy about 5 min later, then we add it to the salt/flour/garlic powder we already whisked together. i feel like it rises faster when you activate the yeast this way first. not sure though because with a baby in the house, our attention is very split and we never are sure how much time has elapsed and we just come check on it at random times. also sometimes we wait too long and it’s still fine. i have no idea if this is true for instant yeast, this may be a benefit of normal “active” yeast. but we’ve always made this with the normal kind and this is probably our favorite recipe. we make these at least once a week.
Donna says
Used all purpose flour. These knots turned out great. I did roast some garlic cloves, then mashed them in the butter. So good. Love this recipe!!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Donna! 🙂
Melinda says
Delicious. I only use 2 cups of all purpose flour.
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Melinda! 🙂
Sophie says
I’ve made this recipe like 7 times. Absolutely delicious! Thanks!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoy it so much, Sophie! 🙂
jamie says
we’ve made these entirely too many times since discovering them, they’re that good! super addictive! but today we decided to make a mini-batch! wanted to share for anyone who wants to make a mini-batch:
this worked wonderfully for two knots (great for those of us who can’t control ourselves, and i think that’s everyone who tastes this recipe):
1/2 cup flour (you know, +/- a smidge, as she says)
1/2 tsp sugar (“level” with your finger so it’s concave, a bit less)
1/2 tsp yeast (a tiny bit heaping)
1/4 tsp salt (“level” with your finger so it’s concave, a bit less)
3 tbsp warm water (heat up a large quantity, you can’t accurately gauge temperature of only 3 tbsp)
and we eyeballed the olive oil (we used garlic olive oil, yummm!)
and we also incorporated about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese into the dough as soon as it was well mixed with the water.
i recommend getting familiar with the recipe by making it a few times the original way and then you’ll feel confident that you know how the dough should look/feel and you’ll be able to tell if you need a few more drops of water or a few pinches more of the flour. i’m actually stoked about this quantity modification, b/c it’s easy to remember. soon we’ll be making these from scratch. and i know it doesn’t seem like changing the quantities should make the recipe faster, but somehow it does. we made the mini batch in like 5 min (well, before the first rise – we’re using normal rather than instant yeast, so we let it rise an hour or two before making the knots, then let those rise 15 min or until they look ready for the oven, though we aren’t timing any of it, impossible to do with a baby in the house, lol)
jamie says
oops, i can’t edit my comment. typo! i said “soon we’ll be making these from scratch” — we’re already doing that. i meant, from memory. 😛
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Jamie! I have never had to self control to make less! 🤣 Thank you for this comment. I typically just eat them all. We also have a baby in the house so I need extra calories to keep up with the baby (or some excuse like that 🤣).
Carolyn says
Tried this and enjoyed making them. They were a hit 😊😊
Soft and delicious
Sam says
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Carolyn! 🙂