Garlic Bread Rolls

I bookmarked this recipe as soon as I saw it on White On Rice Couple's blog together with about a gazillion other recipes that are in my favourites folder. Since one of the aims of starting this blog was to expand my horizons when it comes to food and reduce the load of untried but favorited (is that a word??) recipes, I decided to tackle that over expanding favourites folder, one recipe at a time.

Now there's something about making bread that makes me feel a bit like a domestic goddess. But I'm a bit of a cheat in that I use one of my best friends in the kitchen to give me a helping hand, my breadmaker. When I first bought the breadmaker, I thought it would be one of those gadgets that you buy on a whim, use it in excitement on the first day and then promptly forget about. BUT....I'm proud to say that I make some sort of bread at least once in 2 weeks (that's not so bad is it), be it pizza dough, dinner rolls or cinnabon.

Since I used a breadmaker, the dough was pretty easy to put together. The knots are a little difficult to shape to begin with but instead of following the instructions that were with the original recipe, I did it my own way which I thought was much easier. The babies baked up beautifully. They were soft like pillows and the dressing was like icing on the cake. If you're not a fan of garlic like my husband, they tasted wonderful plain as well. These would go perfectly with a bowl of soup but since we live in a house of picky eaters, I served them as a side to penne arrabiata.  

Garlic Bread Rolls

Ingredients:

For the dough:

415ml warm water

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tbs sugar

1 1/2 tbs yeast

5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

extra flour for shaping

Garlic coating:

30ml olive oil

2 tbs butter

4 cloves garlic, finely crushed

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

salt to taste

Directions:

Add dough ingredients to breadmaker according to breadmaker instructions. If you're brave and kneading by hand, mix all ingredients except the flour. Then add flour and mix to incorporate. Cover and place in a warm area until double in size (mine took half an hour in the breadmaker). Split the dough into four large balls and each ball into a further 10 balls. This will give you a total of 40 balls. Take a ball and roll into a rope about 5 inches tall. Roll this rope into a bowl of flour so it's compeltely covered with flour and then shake off any excess. Tie a knot (over, under and through) and place on a baking sheet with at least 1 1/2 inch space between the knots. Continue until all knots are done. Cover baking sheet and let it rise for the second time in a warm place. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. When the knots have doubled in size, place in the middle rack in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until they turn golden brown. While the knots are baking, prepare the garlic coating by heating the oilve oil, butter and garlic in a pan. Add parsley and set aside. When the knots come out of the oven, immediately toss them in the garlic coating. Season with salt and serve warm.