I was having Italian again the other night and thought this would be the perfect time to try my hand at these Olive Garden Breadsticks, originally pinned from Full Bellies, Happy Kids.
This was my first attempt making bread from scratch and I was a little nervous. Okay, that may not be completely true. I did make bread from scratch in my Kindergarten class. But seeing as that was 20 years ago, I’m not going to count it.
Start by making your dough with the typical ingredients- warm water, yeast, flour, butter, sugar, & salt.
Knead the dough for a few minutes until dough is smooth. This is where I had some trouble. The recipe explicitly said “do not over knead.” This made me nervous. I kneaded and kneaded but the dough was so sticky and would not get smooth. I used flour on my hands but it did little to help. Finally, for fear of over kneading, I just stopped and went to the next step.
Once the dough is smooth (ha), cut off pieces and roll into strips. Since I couldn’t get the dough smooth, my rolls were hard to work with and didn’t look so great.
I had a hard time making room for all the rolls on my pan. I actually threw out some of the dough because it was just too much.
A quick side note- you may be wondering why I’m using such a small baking sheet to begin with. That would be because my oven is tiny...like really tiny. So tiny in fact, that when I moved into my current apartment, I had to buy a new cookie sheet because the normal size one I had, didn’t fit! My cupcake pan only fits if I put in the oven long ways. See for yourself…
But anyway, I digress. Back to the recipe….
Cover the rolls and place in a warm place for 45 minutes.
Place in oven heated to 400 degrees. While the breadsticks are baking, make the glaze. The glaze is simply melted butter with garlic powder and salt.
After 6 minutes take rolls out of the oven and brush the glaze on top. Bake for another 7 or 8 minutes
Immediately upon removal of the oven, coat the other side of the breadsticks with the butter mixture. Allow to cool and enjoy!
The Verdict: These were great! They were a little dense but I think that may have been due to my over kneading. I would definitely try to make these again.
Things to Note/Consider: The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of garlic powder and 2 Teaspoons of salt for the butter mixture. I only put about 1 & ½ teaspoons of salt in and it was still WAY too salty. I would only put in 1 teaspoon at the most. Next time I make these, I think I would even add a little more garlic powder.