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
Start by making and kneading the dough. (Reference my How to Knead Dough video tutorial as necessary.) 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:
- Sandwich Bread
- Whole Wheat Bread
- Homemade Cheese Bread
- Dinner Rolls
- Focaccia
- Soft Pretzels & Soft Pretzel Knots
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 (43g) melted butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder*
- 3 and 1/2 cups (about 450g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
Topping
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) 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 silicone 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.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer (and switch to the dough hook if using the paddle) and beat for an additional 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. 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. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Rise: 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): Electric Stand Mixer or Glass Mixing Bowl and Wooden Spoon or Silicone Spatula | Dough Scraper | Pizza Cutter | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Pastry Brush
- 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.
these were pretty easy – and I am NOT a breadmaker! The dough was easy to mix up, and rose like expected. I cooked them a bit longer than I should have – so the bottoms were crunchier that I like, but the flavor was great!
First time I’ve had success with anything that included ‘yeast’.
Love these garlic knots! Super easy and super delicious!! I was wondering if there way a way to freeze them before baking?
Yes! See recipe note #2 “Freezing Shaped Knots Dough”
These were just delicious and fun to make!! I have extra wheat flour I haven’t used and did the same as one other commenter and split the flour to half wheat.
I just made these last night and they were amazing! It was pretty easy and the dough was so soft. If anyone is debating making these just go for it. I have some tips for anyone wanting to make these:
-I would recommend checking them in the oven around 14-15 minutes if you don’t want them crispy. I took them out at that time and they were perfect and still had that wonderful golden brown color. After the 15 minute mark just keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t get too dark
– I just used regular instant yeast (Fleischmann’s) and it worked fine
– If you want CHEESE STUFFED garlic knots~ what I did is after cutting the dough into strips, I just flattened each strip to make it wider and then sprinkled shredded mozzarella. Then I folded the strip and made sure to pinch the seams closed, before proceeding to make the knot. This way you have a cheese-stuffed strip of dough before shaping. Alternatively you could take cubes of mozzarella and tie the knot around it for a punch of cheese in the middle rather than little bits throughout the garlic knot
– If you want more garlic flavor consider adding some to the dough, and don’t be shy with the melted butter topping 🙂
Made these today with butternut squash soup and they were the perfect accompaniment! To be honest, I ate 5 of them, so it’s a good thing you recommended freezing half the knots. My stomach thanks you!
Hello Sally!
I tried making this garlic knots today but I could not get pass the first stage of making the dough! The dough was so sticky, I could barely do anything with it 🙁 It did not come out as per your video (Where you could just take the dough out of the bowl.. it was all stuck to my hands).
Where did I go wrong? 🙁
Appreciate some help and tips from you. Thank you, Sally!
Hi J, Thank you for trying this recipe! There are a lot of variances that go into the consistency of dough, even down to the brand of flour and the weather and humidity in the air. There’s nothing wrong with adding a little more flour to bring the dough into a less sticky and knead-able consistency.
Made this and my family loved it. <3 I followed the instructions carefully and the results are great! Crispy on the outside but supersoft on the inside. It really looked liked the same on the picturesss above. I don't have platinum yeast so I used eagle instant dry yeast.
I'm just wondering if I can put some cheese inside the dough during shaping?
Hi Lara, We are so happy your family enjoyed this recipe! You could definitely add 1 cup of shredded cheese into this dough when you add the second half of the flour. The cheese might melt around the edges a bit as the knots bake, but that’s not a problem. Lining your pan with silicone baking mats or parchment is best.
Hi so I made this again for the second time and I added grated cheese on the second half of the flour. Same as the first time I made it, I followed everything but this time the dough became really sticky. I was having a hard time kneading. I only put 400g of flour since It was the only available stock I have and put the same amount for the rest of the ingredients. Was this the reason why the dough became sticky?
But after sometime, during shaping it was still sticky so I decided to ask for flour around XD and added some during shaping. Still it was good and my family loved it though I didn’t tasted the cheese very much. Haha.
Can you add spices to the dough to add more flavour? If so, how much would you recommend?
Definitely. The amount depends on the spice. 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1 Tablespoon of Italian seasoning would be convenient (and tasty!) since you’re using both in the topping anyway. I think 1 teaspoon of lemon pepper would be great too.
We love these garlic knots! Thanks for sharing! My hubby wants cheesy garlic knots. Can shredded cheese be added to this recipe or should I try your cheese bread and add garlic to that recipe? It’s all so yummy!
Hi Molly! Either works. You could definitely add 1 cup of shredded cheese into this dough when you add the second half of the flour. The cheese might melt around the edges a bit as the knots bake, but that’s not a problem. Lining your pan with silicone baking mats or parchment is best.
Just made these for family with garlic braised short ribs. They were perfect. I made them with raw pizza dough that I bought from the bakery at my local grocery store. Let it rise, punched it down, made a log…seriously it was that easy and everyone raved and went for more of the juice so they could dip the knots. Crunchy on the bottom and top and oh so tender inside. Make these. Seriously. Oh and when tying the knots….the dough is super forgiving and easy to tie.
This is the best dough recipe ever.
I only rate if I follow a recipe verbatim. These garlic knots are perfection!
I always wonder when anything online gets all 5-star ratings, but I made these today and they were perfect, more like 10 stars on a 5 scale. The only change I made was half butter and half olive oil for the topping (trying to reduce saturated fat), which worked well. The garlic knots look just like your photos and were warm and almost flaky inside and just the right crispness on the outside. Totally delicious – thank you!
Hi Sally, This looks great. But before I try I need a tip from you. If I want to try half quantity of these, then how much of yeast should I 7u8use?
Hi Shakeba, You can cut the yeast in half as well. So you would need 1 and 1/8 tsp (or half of a standard packet).
Very soft and delicious ! I made with half whole wheat and half all purpose white flour and it came out lovely .
Followed directions closely. At 18 minutes the knots didn’t look at all ready. At 23 they were better looking but still not anything like the photos. They were kinda crunchy, tasted good, but we’re quite far from being fluffy and looking like the photo. How might I get them to turn out better?
Excellent recipe! We all loved it.
Soft and crunchy in the right places =)
Super awesome recipe for garlic knots. Soft chewy n yummy. Feeling satisfied
These came out perfectly on the first try. With my oven they took 15 minutes so recommend watching them closely. They were light, soft and delicious!
I made these last night to go with spaghetti and meatballs. They were amazing! Thanks for such a great recipe, this one is a keeper!
They are great. Thanks for sharing. the guys can’t wait ti dig in they smell so good! I actually did have one.
Oh my goodness, these really hit the spot! I made these and was really happy with the rise, the taste and the texture. In fact, I think these are even better than what I get at my favorite Italian restaurant. Thank you for such a great recipe!
Thanks so much for your recipe! Made these today and they were fantastic.
About a week ago I decided to make this recipe… it tasted amazing! It was soft, flavourful, and they were gone in 3 hours! If I were to make it vegan could I replace the butter in the topping for olive oil or would it not work? I will be making garlic knots over and over! Thank you so much!
I made garlic knots per the recipe 2w ago and they were fabulous. Today, I decided to use a full sheet pan and doubled the recipe to make a focaccia. It was unbelievably delicious with a buttery crunchy bottom and soft chewy middle. Sprinkled fresh parsley when it came out of the oven. This will be a regular guest at our table.
I was planning on making these today but I realised I only have bread flour, not plain flour. Is that a suitable substitute?
Absolutely! Bread flour is always a good choice with shaped breads like this. (No changes necessary, just an even swap.)
Thank you! I decided to just go for it and they turned out perfectly. Good shape, texture and colour, only I cooked them for around 30 minutes instead.
Amazing recipe. My whole family loved it!!!
Hi, Sally!
Made these yesterday and it was a total hit! But my family is requesting me to make it next time with whole-wheat flour. Can I replace all or half it the plain flour with whole-wheat? How will that work out? Thank you 🙂
Hi Muhriza, You can try to use half of each for a heartier dough. Or you can try using this recipe for Whole Wheat Pizza Crust shaped as knots.
We have a winner! Super delicious and easy. I make a lot of pizza and bread dough and was delighted at how easy this was to form. Uh, maybe it’s because I kneaded it by hand? I’ll definitely make this again.