Feeling knotty?

Garlic Knots

I made the dough using Fleishmann's Pizza Crust Yeast and just used the recipe on the packet, except I used some freshly ground hard red winter wheat as a portion of the flour. (Mostly because Jack really wanted to actively help and I could tell that saying, "staying out of the kitchen is helping" wasn't gonna fly. So I had him grind some wheat because that keeps him busy, away from the main counter area, and puts some of that 4 year old energy to use.)

Get this stuff:
1 packet Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast
about 2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 c very warm water
3 Tbsp oil
1.5 tsp sugar (I don't really use sugar packets for cooking, my sugar container is just too heavy to lift)
hard red winter wheat, ground
a little bit of cornmeal
1/2 c butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
basil
parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

 

directly from yeast packet, "Combine 1 c flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil. Mix until well blended; about 1 minute"

"Add gradually, enough remaining flour until soft dough ball is formed."

 "Knead on a floured surface adding additional flour if needed, until smooth and elastic"

 Now roll it out (this is only half, I have plans for the other half, also some whole wheat berries made it into the dough, but that's okay.)

 Then I cut it in strips and then cut again Horizontally about the middle after I took this.

 For the topping I followed (well, kinda) an Emeril recipe. Spray the pan with oil (I have olive oil in the Misto) and sprinkle with corn meal. Then, tie the strips in knots and brush with melted butter and cook at 375 for about 12 minutes.

Right after you stick those in the oven cook the 3 cloves of minced garlic with 1/2c unsalted butter. Cook until you can smell the garlic really strong.

 Chop up some parsley (and I did basil too because I had some left over from the pesto) When the garlic and butter are done take off heat and add parsley and basil. The knots should be almost done, when they come out of the oven brush them with the butter, garlic, and herb mix.

I'm not 100% satisfied with how these turned out. Next time, I'll use olive oil instead of butter and use much less of it so it's less runny. I would also add way more garlic, and instead of cooking the mix on the stove I would take the knots out 5 min before they are finished and load them up with the mix.

Jack and I both agree that the pesto pasta was very very good, but the garlic knots were unimpressive. Especially considering the amount of work put in (If I had been the one grinding and kneading, I would be much more disappointed!) The thing that was super easy to make (pesto and pasta) was great and flavorful and the thing that required much more time and energy was totally boring and bland. C'est la vie. (am I allowed to use a French phrase to describe and experiance cooking Italian food? Can we really consider garlic knots Italian?)