Homemade Olive Garden Bread Sticks
I love a good bread stick but it's not always easy to find one that I enjoy. Some are either too hard or too soft or just not tasty enough for my liking.
One of the bread sticks I do enjoy are the ones they serve at Olive Garden, they seem to have just the right amount of everything.
Truthfully though, we don't go out to eat at restaurants that often and I can say that the last time I was at Olive Garden was about 6 or 7 years ago. I know, I know, shocking.
If you search online there are quite a few recipes for bread sticks and some even copy cat recipes for major restaurants and fast food places.
But the one I use which we all just love, is the recipe from The Misadventures of Mrs B. These are phenomenal!
Quick note though.....I think the salt in the basting sauce is a LITTLE too much for my family's liking...if you don't like a lot of salt, just use 1 teaspoon instead of the 2 recommended.
Olive Garden Bread Sticks
Credit: The Misadventures of Mrs B.
1 1/2 cups warm water (between 110 - 120 degrees F)
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered. Mixture should be frothy.
In separate bowl, combine flour and salt.
Add to yeast mixture. Add melted butter. Mix with paddle attachment of stand mixer or wooden spoon until fully combined.
Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Do not overknead!
Grease a cookie sheet. Pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips.
Now, I tend to make pretty thick breadsticks so I normally end with around 10 or so, but I'm sure that if you rolled yours out more thinly you'd have at least a dozen.
Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and once heated, pop in the bread sticks. In microwave, combine the following:
1 stick unsalted butter (or 1/2 cup margarine)
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt
After 6 or 7 minutes, brush the bread sticks with half the butter mixture.
Then continue to bake. Honestly, I almost never leave them in there for an entire 15 minutes - normally it's closer to 12 because I like them softer and less crisp on the outside, but to each their own. Either way, immediately upon removal from the oven brush the other half of the butter on the sticks.
Allow them to cool for a minute or two, and enjoy!
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16 comments:
YUMMY!!! Gotta give these a try soon!
My husband is going to love me even more!
momofmanyhats.blogspot.com
These look yummy! OG is an hour from me so I will give these a try, hanks for sharing.
I made these last night and they were delicious! It was my first time baking anything with a home made dough, so mistakes were definitely made. I didn't really get it at first that you're supposed to use more flour in order to knead the dough, so it started out pretty messy and I may have over-kneaded (if that's possible?). Also, my cookie sheet is small so the bread sticks were very close together. By the time they were done I had to cut them to separate them. Those are the only problems I encountered that I'm aware of. Overall, the ones I made were more dense than light and fluffy like the ones from Olive Garden probably due to a mistake I made, but the flavor was exactly what I remember. I'll definitely be trying this recipe again!
Meri - probably too much flour. the key to light and fluffy is not to add too much flour.
Thanks for sharing! The bread was delicious, but the butter topping was a bit too salty for me - I will leave most of the salt out next time. I love a quick yeast recipe!
I am making these for the third time in two weeks! haha My husband LOVED them. The first time I made them with all white flour and the second time I made them with half white wheat flour. He still loved them. Tonight I am trying half white flour, half wheat flour. We'll see how they turn out but so far they are looking and smelling SO good! :) Thank you
Okay I made these with half wheat flour and half white flour and they were even better then all white flour! They were delicious. The only change I did was I didn't do a full 4 1/2 cups flour. I did more like 4 1/4 cup. They were super yummy!
I have made these twice now and both times they were super dense. I guess I will try less flour, but other than that they are amazing. On the second try I only used about a tsp of salt and it was just right.
Found you via Pinterest! I love all your simple recipes! Thanks for putting them all in one location!
Now Following!
~Mikey @ Shabby French Cottage
www.shabbyfrenchcottage.com
Made these tonight, thanks for the recipe! Just a few questions....did you sift the flour first? Is it 1 1/4 cups of sifted flour? And for the yeast, was it one of the little 8g packages? My breadsticks came out super heavy and dense....not sure why. Thanks for your help! :)
Love these breadsticks! Thanks for sharing the recipe - I posted about in on my blog, gave you credit and linked back. :) In case you're interested: http://cookingmisadventures.com/2012/01/21/olive-garden-breadsticks-copycat/ :)
have you tried making the dough ahead of time and refrigerating/freezing it until needed? do you know what the best way to do that would be?
OG's bread sticks have gone way down hill in the last few years. Certainly not as flavorful and every bit like dough that has been frozen, thawed, cooked and then reheated so their basically stale texture. I'm sure you wouldn't recognize them even if you did venture into their restaurant again.
Looks and sounds awesome. I know what I'll be making for Friday's dinner party!
Thanks,
Jerry
bakingwithjerry.blogspot.com
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