Garlic Knots with Double Garlic Butter
These garlic knots are soft enough to tear apart by hand, chewy enough to remember, and coated in enough garlic butter to make you slightly unreasonable about how many you eat. This recipe starts with scratch-made bread dough, using bread flour for the chew and garlic paste for the flavor, and two and a half hours that you’ll be glad you spent. Finish them with parmesan and fresh parsley, dip them in a quick homemade marinara, and try not to eat the whole batch before dinner.
What Makes These Garlic Knots Work
Three things separate a good garlic knot from a forgettable one: the flour, the garlic, and the butter. But it’s not just choosing the right ingredients; it’s how you handle them that matters.
Bread flour is the foundation and the secret to a truly soft but chewy texture, and it’s my choice for making this dough from scratch. Not all-purpose, not store-bought pizza dough. Bread flour that has been properly kneaded, hand-shaped, and given time to rise.
The garlic and the butter are where the flavor lives. Using fresh ingredients is important, but grating the garlic and applying the garlic butter twice both matter more. Get both right, and you’ll taste the difference in every bite.
What You’ll Need
The recipe for these garlic knots is broken down into three components: the dough, the garlic butter, and the marinara dipping sauce. No specialized ingredients, but there are a few details to watch out for.
Instead of all-purpose, I use bread flour alongside instant yeast, butter, salt, and water for the dough. The garlic butter is just butter and garlic. Fresh cloves or a good-quality garlic puree both work, since you need it in paste form anyway. For the topping, grab a block of Parmesan and grate it yourself with a microplane; the fine shreds melt into the warm knots in a way that pre-shredded won’t. The one thing to double-check at the store is your yeast. I use instant yeast or bread machine yeast, not active dry.
Bread Flour: Your Secret to a Superior Garlic Knot
My goal was to make a garlic knot tender enough to be soft, but chewy enough that I couldn’t just pull it apart like a biscuit—I had to tear it. So, I left the all-purpose, or AP flour, in the pantry and pulled out the bread flour instead.
Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose, typically 12 to 14 percent compared to all-purpose’s 10 to 12. When you hydrate flour and work it into dough, that protein develops into gluten. More protein means a stronger, more elastic gluten network.
That affects the garlic knots in two ways. First, structure: bread flour dough holds its shape through kneading, shaping, and two rises without getting slack. Second, texture: the stronger gluten network creates the chew. All-purpose will give you a softer, more tender roll, but it won’t have the same pull. For a knot that’s soft enough to tear by hand but substantial enough to hold up to garlic butter, bread flour is the right choice.
How To Make Homemade Garlic Knots
As with any scratch-made yeast bread, you cannot rush this garlic knots recipe. Plan ahead to give the dough plenty of time to proof and rise in a warm, draft-free spot. These instructions cover how to make the dough with a stand mixer and shape the garlic knots by hand using the same knotting technique from my soft pretzel knots. To adapt for a bread machine, keep reading.
While the knots rise and the oven heats, you have one more very important task: making the garlic butter. The garlic needs to be worked into a paste, either by finely chopping and mashing with the flat side of your knife, running it through a microplane, or using garlic puree. Melt the butter, add garlic, cook until you can just smell the garlic (about a minute), then let it rest until your knots are ready to bake. It may look like a lot of butter, but you’ll use it twice.
Double Garlic Butter: Two Coats, One Big Difference
The double garlic butter technique means two coats of garlic butter applied at two specific moments. While most recipes brush the butter on just once, on the hot bread as they come out of the oven, my recipe adds an extra coat of garlic butter before the knots go in the oven.
That first coat of garlic butter is the one that changes things. Brushed onto the unbaked dough, the garlic and butter have the entire bake time to slowly work their way into the bread as it cooks. By the time the knots come out of the oven, the flavor is already built in from the inside. The second coat, applied immediately to the hot bread, seals it in and amplifies everything underneath.
That’s two coats of garlic butter, working together to build buttery garlic flavor from the inside out.
While the knots bake, make the marinara: crushed tomatoes, garlic, oregano, white wine vinegar, and sugar into a saucepan. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook low while the bread does its thing. If you’d rather use a jarred marinara, heat it the same way.
Finish with parmesan grated from the block, finely chopped parsley, and a pinch of salt while everything is still hot. Serve immediately.
Making Garlic Knot Dough in a Breadmaker
This garlic knot recipe can easily be adapted for your bread machine, so if you have one, use it. Add the ingredients according to your manufacturer’s instructions and run it on the dough or manual setting — it will mix, knead, and get through the first rise without you. That’s the part that takes the most time and attention, and the machine does it well.
When the cycle finishes, pull the dough out and pick up at the shaping step: form it into an 18-inch rectangle, cut into 18 strips, and carry on from there.
Tips for Success
A few things that will make a difference between knots that are fine and knots you want to make again and again:
- Don’t rush the first rise. The dough needs to genuinely double in size, not just look puffier. If your kitchen runs cold, give it more time or place it in your oven (turned off) with the light turned on. It should add just enough warmth to do the job. An hour and a half is a minimum, not a target, and a slower rise develops better flavor anyway.
- Watch your water temperature. Warm enough to feel on your wrist, not hot. Too hot kills the yeast before it has a chance to work.
- Don’t skip oiling the dough. The oil keeps the surface from forming a dry skin during the rise, which affects both texture and how evenly the knots bake. If you live somewhere very dry, let the dough rise in your oven (turned off) with a small pan of water on the rack below.
- All-purpose flour works, but the texture won’t be the same. You’ll get a softer, more tender knot without the chew that makes these worth making from scratch.
- Make the dough ahead. After combining the ingredients, kneading, and oiling the dough, instead of leaving it out to rise, place it in a sealed container and store it in the fridge. It will proof slowly in the fridge for up to 48 hours. When you’re ready to bake, pull it out and let it sit at room temperature for 90 minutes, then pick up with shaping, cutting, and rolling from there.
Serving Suggestions
Garlic knots and pizza night go hand-in-hand, but they don’t need pizza to earn their place at the table. I serve them alongside pasta, especially a big pot of homemade spaghetti, and they’ll get gobbled up faster than the main dish. They’re also exactly what you want next to a bowl of tomato soup or a hearty stew when you need something to soak up the broth.
They also make a great appetizer. Bring a pan to a game day or potluck and watch them disappear, especially if you set out the marinara for dipping.
Serve them warm. A few minutes at 350ºF brings them right back, or give them 3 minutes in the air fryer at the same temperature if you want the outside to crisp up a little.
How To Store and Reheat Garlic Knots
Garlic knots are best eaten fresh, ideally straight off the pan. If you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two days or freeze them for up to a month.
To reheat from the fridge, give them 5 minutes in a 350ºF oven. From frozen, let them thaw on the counter first, then warm them the same way. The air fryer works here too — 3 minutes at 350ºF and they come out tasting almost freshly baked.
Garlic Knots with Double Garlic Butter
Ingredients
For the Bread
- 3 cups white bread flour (12 3/4 ounces)
- 1 packet instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons or 1/4 ounce)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup butter (melted (4 tablespoons or 2 ounces))
- 1 cup warm water (8 ounces)
- Drizzle of olive oil (for oiling the dough)
For the Garlic Butter
- 1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces)
- 4 garlic cloves (grated or minced to a paste (4 teaspoons))
For the Topping
- 1 small bunch fresh parsley (finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup Parmesan (finely grated (1 ounce))
- Salt (to taste)
For the Marinara
- 1 – 14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic (minced (1 teaspoon))
- 1 teaspoon oregano or Italian seasoning blend
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
Instructions
- Add the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Mix together with a spoon then pour in the melted butter and water. Mix together into a rough dough then (if kneading by hand) turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Alternatively, leave the dough in the bowl and add to a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix on the lowest speed for 5 minutes.
- When the dough is ready it should be soft and pliable. Shape into a ball then place inside a large bowl. Drizzle with oil then turn the dough over to coat completely. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm spot, allow to rise until doubled in size. This should take between 1.5-2 hours.
- Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
- When the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to form it into a rectangle of approximately 18 inches long. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 18 strips.
- Take a strip in your hands and roll it into a log shape about 5 inches long. Tie it in a knot then tuck the ends underneath. Place the shaped knot onto one of the prepared baking trays. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Place the prepared knots in a warm spot and allow rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Meanwhile make the garlic butter. Melt the butter in a small saucepan until bubbling. Remove from heat and swirl in the grated garlic. Set aside.
- After 30 minutes, brush the garlic knots with the garlic butter (you will use about half) then bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the knots turn golden brown.
- While the garlic knots are baking prepare the marinara. Combine crushed tomatoes, minced garlic, oregano, white wine vinegar, and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, then cover and let it cook over a low flame while the bread bakes.
- Once the garlic knots are ready, brush them with the remaining butter and sprinkle with Parmesan, chopped parsley, and salt. Serve immediately alongside the marinara.
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Nutrition
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