Soft Garlic Knots

My successful return to baking with yeast commenced with these delicious soft garlic knots. After my initial success with pizza dough, I thought yeast was a piece of cake. Unfortunately, my pita disaster then frightened me off for about a year. I saw this recipe on Annie's Eats (love her), and thought that if Annie thought this was a good yeast dough for beginners, that maybe I could give yeast dough a shot again. Plus, I'm a sucker for soft garlicky bread! I really felt like not only was this a delicious final product, but the dough itself was very forgiving, allowing me to really experiment with it to figure out what worked for me when shaping. When I tried to roll the dough like play-dough, the dough deflated a little too much and those rolls didn't puff as much in the second rise as the others. What worked was stretching and kind of tossing the dough a little, like pizza dough, until it strung out to the length I needed and then I could shape it easily. Such a fun project because it really is a lot like playing with Play-dough and it makes the house smell like beer and then like fresh bread! These are also reheating from the freezer quite nicely. I just pop them in the toaster oven on 350 for about 10 minutes and then toast them on level 2 to give them a little toasty edge. I'm glad they refreeze nicely because I ate 3 immediately out of the oven, so it's probably best if I hide them in the freezer in 2 packs for future use so that I'm not tempted to eat the whole batch!




Soft Garlic Knots (As seen on Annie's Eats & Amber's Delectable Delights, from King Arthur's Flour)
For the dough:
3 cups bread flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. instant yeast
1¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup milk
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. lukewarm water
For the glaze:
2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp. melted butter
½ tsp. Italian seasoning (I used oregano)
To make the dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine the dry ingredients. Add the olive oil, milk and water. Mix until ingredients have formed a dough. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Divide the dough into 10 even pieces (I think I got 11). Roll (or stretch) each piece until about 10 inches long, then tie into a knot. Tuck the ends around so that one goes into the middle of the knot and the other is tucked underneath (Annie has a great pictorial of how this works!). Transfer rolls onto a baking stone or baking sheet lined with silicone sheet. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rise for another 45-60 minutes. To make the glaze, mince the garlic into a small bowl with the melted butter. Add the Italian seasoning/oregano and mix well to combine. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Very gently brush the glaze onto the shaped, risen rolls. Bake until just golden, about 15-18 minutes.