Garlic Knots

   When Madhuri first showed me these on Annie's Eats, I was drooling like a baby. And when she made these delicious buns and posted them on her blog, ooh-ed and aah-ed over them, I had to, had to try these out and soon. I find the aroma of butter and garlic irresistible in breads and can gleefully (read greedily) eat a whole baguette all by myself ;-). Just the copious amounts of fat drizzled or smeared on the ones available at stores put me off. But now that I am beginning to learn the A of the ABC of baking bread, there was just no stopping me from baking these Garlic Knots at home. And what awesome buns these made! I had baked these in the morning so that we could eat these with soup for dinner, but was left with very little of the buns by evening. Hubby complained that they got over too soon, I baked this as a loaf yesterday again! Talk about people finding excuses to bake!

Fantastic in taste and texture, slightly salty, these make the perfect, perfect company to your hearty bowl of steaming soup. Serve these warm with veggie loaded soup and a large salad, and you will eat your scrumptious and hearty winter evening meal without any guilt what so ever.

Annie's recipe here has bread flour in it. If you would have to make your own bread flour at home you would need to add 1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten to every cup of plain flour or maida. Since I had run out of gluten, I have used only plain flour. As my bread Guru suggested, I have just kneaded the dough for about 2-3 minutes longer than mentioned in the recipe. The rest of the recipe including the proportion of liquid remains the same as in Annie's.

Before we proceed, allow me to tell you, how indispensable my dough scraper has become to me. I knead with my hands. Specially in a recipe like this, with the dough super sticky, your dough scraper can be so very useful. If you do not have one, do get one, no make that two! You can get it at IBCA for sure, and other shops like General Additives, Durga Agencies, Adams..

What I did:

Ingredients:
 For the dough:
3 cups Plain Flour/ Maida/ All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. instant yeast ( I use Gloripan)
1¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup milk, lukewarm
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. lukewarm water

For the glaze:
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. melted butter
½ tsp. Italian seasoning

Procedure: Pin up your hair really well, tuck in any stray strands... super sticky dough remember:-))

In a large bowl, combine the sugar and the yeast. Pour the lukewarm milk over it. (If you would be using Dry Active Yeast, then you will have to proof it and then carry on with the rest of the procedure) Add the oil, lukewarm water and salt. Mix well. Add the flour slowly and bring it together to form a rough dough. If the dough is very sticky, just grease your hands, DO NOT ADD MORE FLOUR. Grease your work area and knead the dough for about 11 minutes. Use the dough scraper to get the dough together at intervals. (If you are using bread flour, 8 minutes is enough). Again, do not add more flour while kneading, just grease your hands.

Place the dough in a clean, dry, oiled bowl with enough room for the rise. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it double in bulk. This may take about 45 minutes to an hour. My dough doubled really well in an hour even in this dreary cold weather (Hail Gloripan!!!, Ummm...aahhh!!!!:))

Once the dough doubles, remove from the bowl, deflate the dough gently to release the air. Knead very briefly(say a few seconds) and gently. I divided my dough into about 14 balls. You can make it into10 if you have a large oven. Now comes the interesting part and some dreary pics to go with it. Thought a step by step is absolutely needed here if you are trying these for the first time.

Line your baking tray with butter paper, grease lightly. You will need multiple pans or trays if you will not be able to fit all in one baking tray. Do remember, once the knots rise again, you can't lift them off the surface.
Since I am not very good at putting this across, lemme just copy and paste what Annie says.

•  Roll each piece into a 10-inch long rope and tie into a knot.( I kept my wooden spatula as a measure)
• Take the end lying underneath the knot and bring it over the top, tucking it into the center.
• Take the end lying over the knot and tuck it underneath and into the center. (Make sure, you tuck the ends securely or they will start coming out)

There, we have our knots ready, ahem... clumsy ones, but good enough. If you use bread flour, your dough may be easier to handle as it would be slightly more firmer.

Place the knots spaced well apart. Cover with a clean cloth and allow to double again.

Towards the end of the second rise, pre heat your oven to 190 degrees C /350 F. Combine the ingredients for the glaze. Using a pastry brush gently apply over the knots. Bake until slightly browned. Do not wait for them to brown more or they will have a chewy crust like mine. Cool slightly and savor..

For those baking in a small oven like mine, this may help to know. I made these in 3 batches. The first 2 came out pretty good, but the third batch was looking pretty shapeless as they had puffed a lot by the time I baked them. They were also not as light as the earlier ones, but tasty. You may want to refrigerate a part of the dough after the second rise, wait till you are sure the oven will be free to put the buns in once risen. Take the dough out, shape, allow to rise and bake. I haven't tried refrigerating yet, must try soon.

And I must thank Madhuri and Annie for this recipe, am gonna make these very often!

These buns go to Champa's Bake - Off .

These are also being Yeast-Spotted.