Monday, March 3, 2014

52WoC Week 9: Garlic - Inside Out Garlic Knots

Garlic is almost synonymous with delicious. Almost all savory dishes can use some garlic to make them even tastier. The only thing possibly better than garlic is roasted garlic. The garlic starts to lose its sharp edges and become a sweet soft pod of spreadable delicious. Even though that sentence makes zero sense, roasted garlic spread on bread is far and away one of the tastiest things ever. It even rivals the all time champ, soft butter on bread. I tend to lean towards convenience and got to thinking: let's stuff bread with roasted garlic. This would save me valuable time spreading the soft garlic on bread! Fig Newtons are tasty and are stuffed with figs. Pop Tarts are tasty and they are stuffed with something resembling fruit. Hot Pockets are tasty and they are stuffed with something resembling fruit. Most importantly, Crunch Wrap Supremes are tasty and they are stuffed with everything. Bread stuffed with roasted garlic has to be as tasty as all the things listed (except maybe a crunch wrap supreme).

The thing that has always bothered me about traditional garlic knots is how tough the dough can be. It can end up feeling like you're chewing on garlic flavored gum1. With this recipe, you get beautifully soft doughy buns with surprise roasted garlic. It may seem like a lot of dough for garlic, but the roasted garlic packs such flavor, it's balanced nicely with large amount of bread.


Inside Out Garlic Knots


Qty Ingredient Procedure
1 tsp sugar
  1. Dissolve the sugar in warm water. Add the yeast and wait 5-10 minutes until foamy.
1 cup water
1 tsp yeast2
2 tsp kosher salt
3 cups all purpose flour
  1. Combine the salt and flour thoroughly.
  2. Using a food processor with the dough blade, add the yeasty water to the flour and mix until it becomes a ball. This can be done with your hands and knead for at least 10 minutes.
  3. Oil a bowl and place dough in it. Cover with cling wrap. Let rise for about an hour then punch down. Let rise for another hour before using.
2 tsp kosher salt
3 heads garlic
  1. Preheat an oven to 375°F.
  2. Cut the tops off the heads of garlic. Put in an aluminum foil pouch with a good glug of olive oil and a hefty pinch of salt. Bake for 45 minutes.
  3. Remove the heads of garlic from the pouches making sure to save the oil.
  4. Raise the temperature of the oven to 450°F.
  5. Carefully remove the garlic from the skins and separate into 16 even piles. Separate the dough into 16 balls. Stuff each piece of dough with garlic and seal tightly. Place on a greased cookie sheet, seam side down. Bake for 15-20 minutes. When fresh out of the oven, brush with reserved garlic oil.
olive oil

The start of this recipe is a very simple pizza dough. You can start with store bought stuff but I prefer making my own stuff. You need to start off with proofing the yeast. Combine the sugar, water, and yeast. You want the water to be warm without it being too hot. If the water is too hot, the yeast will die. Let proof until foamy, about 5 minutes. While the yeast is proofing, combine the salt and the flour. I personally use a food processor to take care of the rest of making this dough but you can do it by hand. In a food processor, combine the water and flour and process until the dough forms and ball and pulls off the side of the machine. Let go for 30 seconds or so to knead further. If doing this by hand, knead the dough for about ten minutes until the dough is elastic. The window pane test is a classic - stretch the dough out and you should be able to see light through it without it ripping. Either way, ball up the dough and place in an oiled bowl and over with cling wrap. Sit out in a warm spot for an hour until it doubles in size then punch down. After this, it needs to rise again for another hour so it's the perfect time to start working on the garlic.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the tops off the heads of garlic. Place in aluminum foil with enough to eventually wrap up. Cover with a decent amount of olive oil. Season with a large pinch of salt. Wrap the foil completely up. I like doing this in a muffin tin so each head has its own seat. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Unwrap and let cool. Do not discard the excess oil in the pouches.

Split the ball of dough into 16 separate, roughly equal, pieces. Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze it out of the skins and split into 16 piles. Once ready to stuff the dough, raise the heat in the oven to 450°F. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick baking spray. Flatten one of the dough balls to about 2 inches in diameter; stuff with the roasted garlic and pinch off. Fold in all of the edges, making sure the garlic is completely enclosed. Place the roll seam side down and repeat 15 more times. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown. Take out of the oven and immediately brush with excess garlic oil from roasting; if you run out simply use some extra virgin olive oil. If you want to get fancy, finish with some Parmesan after brushing with the oil.


  1. Wrigley, please get working on this shit!  
  2. A normal packet of yeast contains 2.5 teaspoons. Use approximately half.  

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