Garlic Knots

This recipe is courtesy of My Life of Travels & Adventures!

I was surprised at how quick and easy these were - and how downright fun! I mean, being able to tie bread dough into knots? That's fun and bloody awesome! These are perfect for any Italian dinner, just on their own, or even for pizza fondu.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup warm water

1 tbsp. maple syrup (I used the expensive 100% stuff) or honey

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

2 tbsp olive oil

4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

For Garlic Butter:

2 tbsp butter (I ended up using 4 tbsp)

4 tbsp minced garlic cloves

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp garlic powder

3 tbsp Parmesan cheese

Directions:

- Combine water, maple syrup, and yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes.

- Stir in the oil. Then stir in the flour and salt. Add additional flour one cup at a time until the dough comes together. I ended up only using 3 cups of flour. Mixing it with your hands is the easiest way to get it all mixed together.

- Lightly flour your surface and knead dough for 5 minutes.

- Spray a large bowl and lightly flour it. Place dough inside, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

- Divide dough into 16 equal pieces.

- On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece into a dough rope about 9-10 inches long and about 1/2-inch thick.

- Shape into a knot (fold one end of the dough over the other so it looks like an awareness ribbon. Twist dough at the place where the two sides overlap. Fold ends over and tuck under). Once you get it down, it's super easy.

- Place knots on a covered baking sheet.

- Bake for 10-12 minutes (I baked mine for 14).

- To make the garlic butter, melt butter in a small saucepan.

- Mix in all the ingredients, except the Parmesan cheese.

- Toss the knots in the garlic butter.

- Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top! NOTE: when I tried to add the Parmesan cheese to the mixture, as originally directed, it got melty and was very hard to toss the garlic knots thoroughly.