Garlic knots are best during the chilled winter season with your morning or evening tea, and are not something very complicated to bake. Garlic knots is just a fancy name for garlic rolls as instead of giving the dough shape of normal buns, we turn them into the shape of knots. They make for attractive snacks when guests come visiting!
You must be wondering that during this Deepawali festive atmosphere why I am posting garlic knots recipe instead of some traditional sweets?
The reason is that finally after one and a half months my OTG got repaired and I was very eager to bake. First I baked White Sandwich Bread(3) to test the oven and then I decided to bake garlic knots as slowly winter is creeping in. To flavor these buns you can buy garlic butter, but it is very easy to prepare that at home also. Peel a few garlic pods, crush them and sauté with butter. Garlic butter is ready. If using unsalted butter, add salt, and to make it more flavored, add mixed pizza spices. If you are calorie conscious, instead of butter, sauté garlic in olive oil.
You can also check a few more posts on baked snacks in the blog…
You can check Basics of baking – bread/buns/rolls (Wheat flour buns with pizza spices-2) for a few tips on baking bread.
Ingredients:
White flour (maida) 1+ 3/4 cup
Milk powder 1/4 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Instant active yeast 3/4 tsp
Water 1/2 cup (can increase or reduce if required)
Butter/oil 2 tbsp
Pizza spices 1/2-1 tbsp (optional)
Garlic butter
Few more tips to follow:
- All ingredients, other than water, should be at room temperature.
- The temperature of the water should be slightly more than lukewarm but not hot.
- Milk powder is added to keep the knots soft. If you are not interested in adding milk powder, omit it and add white flour in the same quantity as milk powder.
- Instead of water, dough can be kneaded with milk too.
- Instead of white flour, wheat flour can be used, but increase the quantity of water while kneading as wheat flour requires more moisture.
- If using dry active yeast, increase the quantity to 1 tsp – and remember, dry active yeast has to be bloomed first before adding in the flour.
Process :
Collect all dry ingredients in a big broad vessel.
Start adding water and collect all ingredients in the shape of dough and knead it for 12-15 minutes. Initially, dough will be wet but kneading will make it smooth. Keep adding butter while kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.
Keep this dough in a big oil/butter greased bowl for first proofing. Brush up the top of the dough with melted butter. Cover the bowl with cling film or a wet clean kitchen towel and keep in a warm place so that the dough rises till it is double in the volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how hot or cold the kitchen temperature is.
After first proofing, gently punch it to knock out the air.
Dust kitchen counter with some flour and knead the dough just to make it smooth. Roll the dough in the shape of a log and cut it for equal sized knots. You can use weighing scale to get exact measurement. Roll these rolls in same length and give them a knot shape. Remember, after tying the knot join both the open edges by pinching them tightly at the bottom. Keep them in an oil greased baking tray, leaving some distance between each because they are going to puff up nicely. Apply some melted butter on them to avoid drying, cover them, and keep them for second proofing.
The second proofing gets over in 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat oven at 180 degrees, ten minutes before second proofing ends.
Brush knots with garlic butter generously and bake them at 180-185 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or till they are nicely brown on the top and bounce back when pressed. After baking again brush them with garlic butter and relish with hot tea/coffee.
