I love garlic knots and they make a super delicious snack as well. We have a running joke in our family that I could eat raw garlic! Not that I have ever tried it though. On the other hand, my daughter is a huge fan of olives, and she could finish half a jar in one seating! I buy the olives from WholeFoods for her, that she simply loves, especially the marinated kind which are so flavorful. I decided to make a twist on the traditional garlic knots, and made these NOT-GARLIC-KNOTS, called Spanish knots! đ
Using basic pizza dough, the recipe that I adapted from the King Arthur Flour website, I roll the dough, cut it into strips, brush with an infused herb-garlic olive oil, stuff it with olives, twist, brush with butter and TheSpanishTin Far East Spain blend, which by the way is pretty darn amazing! You could substitute it with smoked paprika/garlic powder/powdered saffron mix as well. Once you brush it, bake it in the oven, and garnish them with sea salt and parsley. The rising part of the dough takes time, but apart from that it is not a difficult recipe.
Once out of the oven, the whole kitchen smells wonderful with all those herbs, spices and butter and oils and bread ofcourse! The smell of bread is simply intoxicating. I mean how can you not dig into them immediately? My family thoroughly enjoyed the knots, especially the olive loving daughter of mine and they were over pretty soon!
If you do try this recipe, please tag me on Instagram with #thejamlab, and/or leave a comment below! I would be thrilled if you give it a try!
XO
Amisha
Ingredients
Pizza dough(Adapted from King Arther Flour):
- 2 cups lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3 cups bread flour
For the Spanish knots:
- 1 cup olives, chop them into small pieces
- ½ - 3/4 cup of olive oil infused with rosemary-thyme-garlic (Recipe in the method)
- 1 1/2 stick unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons @thespanishtin âs Far East Spain Blend (which has smoked paprika, saffron, cumin to name a few spices!)
- Extra sea salt to sprinkle on the top of the knots
- Âź cup finely chopped parsely for ganish
Rosemary-Thyme-Garlic infused olive oil:
- 1 cup extra virgin good olive oil
- 3 sprigs of rosemary
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
Instructions
- In the mixing bowl of a mixer, add sugar, yeast, olive oil and salt in the lukewarm water(not hot), stir until sugar dissolves for ½ a minute. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes.
- Add both the flours, starting with 5 1/2 cups flour and adding more as necessary to make a soft, smooth dough. Knead the dough in the mixer until it's smooth and elastic, about 7 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or other container, cover it, and let it rise for 1 ½ hours.
Rosemary-Thyme-Garlic Infused Olive Oil:
- For the olive oil mixture, in a small saucepan, take about 1 cup of olive oil. Add in the rosemary, thyme, garlic and let it sit at medium heat, until the oil starts bubbling about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, once the oil is hot and it has bubbled for an extra minute, switch off the gas and let it cool down. Your infused oil is ready. This can be made days ahead and used for various dishes, like pastas, pizzas etc.
- On a big wooden board, dust the board with additional flour, flour the dough well so that it does not stick to your hands. Cut it into 4 pieces. Take one piece and drench it in flour and roll it out onto the board, into an 8 X 10 rectangle approximately. Brush the entire rectangle with the infused oil. Now with a sharp knife, or pastry cutter, cut the rectangular piece of dough into 10 strips. Now on each strip, spread about 3/4 tablespoon of chopped olives, and spread it and push it gently on the strip. Now pinch the dough lengthwise, to close off the strip, and cover the olives and seal it such that it does not spill out.
- Gently take the ends of the strip and knot each strip criss-cross to form a knot. Place the knot gently on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Continue this process with all the remaining strips.
- Now cover the entire baking sheet with a kitchen towel and let the dough sit and rise for another hour. In the meanwhile, in a small saucepan, on medium-low heat, add in the butter and let it melt. Add in the sea salt, and the spice mixture and stir it to incorporate. Let the mixture be warm, donât boil it. Switch off the gas in 2-3 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Before baking, brush each knot generously with the butter mixture. Utilize half the butter mixture for brushing before baking. Now put the tray in the oven, middle rack and bake for 12 minutes until golden brown. If it has not browned, let it bake for longer, about 5 additional minutes. Check again to see if it is golden brown. Once golden brown, remove tray from the oven, and brush again with the remainder butter mixture. Sprinkle with sea salt and garnish with the parsley.
- The knots are best served warm. A spicy tomato sauce, spiced up with ancho chili powder/smoked paprika powder would taste so good!
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