These homemade garlic knots are extra soft and fluffy, and use a dough almost identical to this reader-favorite pizza dough. Top with flavorful garlic herb butter before AND after baking. And use my detailed instructions, video tutorial, and step-by-step photos below to help with the shaping step.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
These are the BEST garlic knots. I’m knot even kidding. 😉
Tell Me About These Garlic Knots:
- Made from an easy homemade dough
- Leftovers freeze beautifully
- Super soft and fluffy
- Golden brown
- Extra garlic butter
And I know you’ll appreciate this too: You can use the entire batch of dough for 16 knots or you can use half of the dough to make a pizza or stromboli, and then have 8 knots on the side. Perfect for pizza night—no delivery required.
Garlic Knots From Pizza Dough
You can make these garlic knots with 1 or 2 pounds of store-bought or homemade pizza dough. Today’s dough is almost identical to my homemade pizza dough, which yields about 2 pounds of dough. You can make 16 knots or 1 pizza + 8 knots. If you only need about 8 knots, freeze the other half of dough for another time. You will want to make these garlic knots again.
- Besides garlic knots and pizza, you can use this dough for cheesy breadsticks, pepperoni pizza rolls, and ham & cheese pockets too! So versatile.
Compared to my pizza dough, I add 1 extra Tablespoon of olive oil for a little extra flavor and richness. Sometimes for extra flavor I use butter instead, similar to what I do when making homemade breadsticks. Either one works. (Melted butter in the dough is convenient because you also need melted butter for the topping.)
Even though store-bought dough is convenient, I encourage you to try homemade dough. The dough requires so few ingredients, and about 60–90 minutes of rise time.
You need flour, yeast, sugar, water, salt, and olive oil (or melted butter). I always use Platinum Yeast from Red Star. If you’ve been baking my yeast breads for a while, you know I swear by it! Its careful formula strengthens dough and makes working with yeast simple.
Let Me Show You How to Shape Garlic Knots
After the dough rises, punch it down to release the air. Then begin shaping the dough. If you know how to tie a knot, you can shape garlic knots.
- Shape into a 16-inch log: Using your hands, shape the dough into a 16-inch log. No need to use a rolling pin because this doesn’t need to be perfect.
- Cut into 16 strips: Cut the log into 16 1-inch strips.
- Roll each strip into an 8-inch rope.
- Tie the rope into a knot.
Here are step-by-step pictures of the shaping process. It’s a lot easier than it seems, and you don’t need any special tools.
Shape each strip into knots:
You can tuck the ends underneath the knot or leave them out—that’s totally up to you. The ropes are longer when making soft pretzel knots, but tying the knot is the same.
Let the shaped knots rest for about 30 minutes before brushing with butter and baking.
Garlic Herb Butter
Right before baking, generously brush the knots with garlic herb butter. Simply combine melted butter, fresh minced garlic or garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and salt.
- If you can’t find a spice labeled “Italian Seasoning” in the spice aisle, use dried oregano, dried basil, and/or dried parsley instead.
Bake the knots until golden brown and experience the lofty smell of garlic throughout the kitchen. Everyone (um, even your neighbors) will know what’s on the menu tonight!
Flavor Tip: Save some of the garlic butter to brush onto the knots as they come out of the oven, then top each with fresh parmesan and chopped parsley. The parmesan and parsley are completely optional, but make an awesome garnish. This is your happy place:
More Surprisingly Simple Homemade Bread:
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Homemade Garlic Knots
- Prep Time: 3 hours (includes rising)
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes
- Yield: 16 knots
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Follow these detailed instructions for super soft and flavorful homemade garlic knots. Review video tutorial and recipe notes below before beginning.
Ingredients
Homemade Dough
- 1 and 1/3 cups (320ml) warm water (between 100–110°F, 38–43°C)
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) Platinum Yeast from Red Star instant yeast (1 standard packet)*
- 1 Tablespoon (13g) granulated sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) olive oil or melted butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder*
- 3 and 1/2 cups (about 450g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
Topping
- 5 Tablespoons (70g) unsalted butter, melted
- 3 garlic cloves, minced; or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning*
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- optional after baking: 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- optional after baking: 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Whisk the warm water, yeast, and granulated sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or paddle attachment. Cover and allow to rest for 5 minutes. *If you don’t have a stand mixer, simply use a large mixing bowl and mix the dough with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula in the next step.
- Add the olive oil (or butter), salt, garlic powder, and half of the flour. Beat for 15 seconds, then add the remaining flour. Beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes (for a visual, watch me do it in the video). The dough can be a little too heavy for a mixer to knead it, but you can certainly use the mixer fitted with a dough hook on low speed instead. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading.
- Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray—just use the same bowl you used for the dough. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 1–2 hours or until double in size. (Tip: For a warm environment on a particularly cold day, heat your oven to 150°F (66°C). Turn the oven off, place the dough inside, and keep the door slightly ajar. This will be a warm environment for your dough to rise. After about 30 minutes, close the oven door to trap the air inside with the rising dough. When it’s doubled in size, remove from the oven.)
- Shape the dough: Use the video tutorial and step-by-step photos as your guide for this step. When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Using floured hands on a lightly floured work surface, shape the dough into a 16×5-inch (13x41cm) log. (5-inch width really isn’t as important as the 16-inch length here—no need to be exact.) Using a very sharp knife, pizza cutter, or bench scraper, slice into 16 1-inch strips. Roll each strip into 8-inch ropes. Tie each into a knot. You can tuck the 2 ends of the knots underneath or leave them out—that’s up to you. Arrange the knots on 2 baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Lightly cover the shaped knots and let them rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 45 minutes. They will slightly puff up during this time, producing softer rolls.
- Towards the end of the rise time, preheat oven to 400°F (204°).
- Make the topping: Stir the melted butter, garlic, Italian seasoning, and salt together. Brush on the knots. Reserve some of the topping for when the knots come out of the oven.
- Bake for about 20–23 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and brush the warm knots with remaining garlic butter. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and/or parsley, if using.
- Serve plain or with marinara sauce for dipping.
- Cover and store leftover knots at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Freeze baked and cooled knots for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter, then reheat as desired. (I usually just microwave them for a few seconds.)
Notes
- Freezing Dough or Overnight Dough Instructions: See Pizza Dough recipe for details; the doughs are almost identical.
- Freezing Unbaked Shaped Knots: Instead of freezing the dough as a whole, you can freeze the shaped knots before baking them. Shape the knots as directed in step 4. Arrange on a lined baking sheet. Freeze, uncovered, for 1–2 hours. Remove from the freezer. At this point, knots should be frozen and no longer sticky. Place them into a freezer-friendly container or zipped-top bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter. Bring to room temperature, arrange on 2 lined baking sheets, cover lightly, and allow to rest/rise for 1 hour before continuing with step 6.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer | Dough Scraper | Pastry Brush | Pizza Cutter | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper
- Dough: You can make these garlic knots with 2 pounds of store-bought or homemade pizza dough. This recipe yields just about 2 pounds of dough, which is enough for 16 knots or 1 pizza + 8 knots. If you only want to make 8 knots, punch the dough down as directed in step 4. Cut in half. Use the other half of the dough however you’d like or freeze for later. Shape into an 8-inch log and cut into 8 1-inch strips. Continue with the recipe as directed.
- Garlic Powder: I now add a little garlic powder to the dough. You won’t see that addition to the dough in the recipe video, but it adds a little extra flavor. Highly recommended.
- Yeast: Platinum Yeast from Red Star is an instant yeast. You can use active dry yeast instead. The 1st rise time may take a little longer. Reference my Baking With Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Italian Seasoning: If you can’t find a spice labeled “Italian Seasoning” in the spice aisle, use dried oregano, dried basil, and/or dried parsley instead.
Keywords: garlic knots
I loved this recipe! It worked so well at high altitude here in Denver. The only change I made was decreasing the rise time due to the high elevation. Thank you!
the dough is very sticky even adding more flour (around 1/4 cup more) and even after kneading for over 10 mins.
Hi Rebecaa, There are a lot of variables that go into the consistency of dough, even down to the weather and humidity in the air. Is it particularly humid where you live? There’s nothing wrong with adding a little more flour to bring the dough into a less sticky and knead-able consistency. Make sure your kneading surface and hands are well-floured too, to prevent sticking.
Can I make the dough in my bread maker?
We haven’t tested it but can’t see why not!
Great recipe! So soft and very tasty! I baked mine on 350 for 23 mins. Perfect! Thank you so much!
★★★★★
The recipe worked great! I did want them a little crispier maybe I needed to let the dough rise more. Is there a good marinara sauce that can go with this?
Hi Kristyna, we love this pasta sauce with garlic knots: https://www.budgetbytes.com/thick-rich-pizza-sauce/ Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try!
I followed this recipe and my garlic knots came out hard and way too crispy on the outside. I looked at King Arthur’s Baking website and you should really bake these at 350F for 17-18 minutes. What a waste of 2 hours ++
I made exactly like your recipe. I recommend: Make 32 or more knots not 16, at 16 they are much to large. Mix garlic and spices in the bread dough, the flavor would greatly improve. Use butter not olive oil. Cut the baking time to about 20min using 16 knots or 15min using 32 knots.
★★★★
My eleven year old daughter was interested in making garlic knots. And we tried out your recipe, we followed all the steps as you had outlined. And we are so so happy!! It turned out great!! Thank you for this recipe!!
★★★★★
My husband agrees, Best garlic rolls ever ! This recipe works !
★★★★★
This was my first time making garlic knots and they were AMAZING! I definitely recommend this recipe!
★★★★★
Absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Wow! I can’t believe how easy these are to make & how perfect they turned out. I used my stand mixer to kneed for 5 minutes & followed your method for proofing in the oven. My family loves garlic, so I used both chopped garlic & garlic powder in the butter topping. This recipe is a definite keeper!
★★★★★
Made your recipe for the first time added enough flour as to not be sticky and second rise was gorgeous but when eating were tough and chewy. Good air in the rise and lightly browned all over. Did I perhaps knead the dough too much before first rise or work it too much in making the ropes ?
Hi Murray, A dense garlic knot can be caused by not letting the dough rise enough. Make sure to allow the dough to rise until doubled in size. You can read more tips in our baking with yeast guide!
These look amazing! Can they be cooked in an air fryer? I can’t use the oven during the summer:(
We haven’t tested baking these garlic knots in an air fryer but let us know if you do!
I really love these and would like to make them for my son’s rehearsal dinner. Can these be made ahead and reheated with good results? How far ahead would you say they could be made?
★★★★★
Hi Phebe, We’re so glad you love these! See the recipe notes for how to Freeze Unbaked Shaped Knots.
So excited to try this for my family! I always trust your recipes for any baking project I have. Would bread dough work for this rather than pizza dough?
Can’t see why not! The texture will be slightly different.
Can you do these a couple of days ahead and freeze?
Yes, absolutely! See Pizza Dough recipe for details; the doughs are almost identical.
Who knew I could make garlic rolls from scratch! Simple recipe to follow and sooooo good! My whole family approves! Thank you for sharing this recipe! It’s a keeper!
★★★★★
Made these for the first time today. Absolutely fantastic!!!!! Thank you so much for all your great recipes!
★★★★★
I’ve made this recipe before and they are delicious. We’re having a dinner party and I’ve made a double batch and frozen them after knotting per your instructions. How long do you think they will take to thaw on the counter before I let them rise for another hour?
Hi Cindy! We’re unsure of the exact time, but likely around 3-4 hours, depending on the temperature. You can also thaw overnight in the fridge!