Garlic Breadsticks~Two Ways

Raise your hand if you love Olive Garden breadsticks.

I know! Me too! I love when they are warm and buttery and garlicky.

Did you know you can make something very similar at home and it is not as

 hard as you might think?

Now, I want all of you who are intimidated by working with yeast to pay attention. 

You can do this!

They only real key here is to have fresh, active yeast and to knead your dough until smooth and elastic. If you can do that, then you can have fresh breadsticks. And the buttery sauce that you spread on top. Oh. My. Word. You can put as much or as little of it on as you like. They won't do that at Olive Garden for you!

I'm going to share two recipes today. The first one is the "made from scratch" version 
and my hubby swears they taste better than Olive Garden's version.
The second recipe is the cheater version. They don't taste exactly like the "from scratch" breadstick but they are super tasty and are a perfect (and easy!) way to dress up some premade breadsticks.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups very warm water
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

Garlic Butter topping:

1/2 stick unsalted butter 

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon table salt

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered. Mixture should be frothy.
In the bowl of your stand mixer or medium-sized bowl, combine flour and salt. Add yeast mixture and melted butter to flour mixture. 

Mix with dough hook attachment on stand mixer or stir with a wooden spoon until fully combined.

Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth and elastic.

Spray baking sheet with nonstick spray.

Pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips.

The first few times I made this, I pulled off way too much dough for each breadstick. So pull off smaller size pieces 
than you would think you'd need. Remember these are going to double in size!

Cover the dough with plastic wrap sprayed with nonstick spray (so dough doesn't stick to it from the inside) or cover with a clean kitchen towel. Put in a warm place to rise. 
I like to preheat my oven to about 150F degrees and then turn it off once it has warmed. 
I'll put my breadsticks in there because it is a nice, warm and draft-free place for the bread to rise.

Once they have doubled in size, remove sheet from oven and 
preheat oven up to 400F degrees.

Once it has reached temperature, take plastic wrap off of breadsticks and put in the oven.

While they are baking, make butter topping.

Microwave butter until melted and add garlic powder and salt, stir until combined.

  

After 6 or 7 minutes, brush the bread sticks with half the butter mixture. Then continue to bake for another 6-7 minutes. 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!

Now, for the quick version. Don't have time to make bread from scratch? This next recipe takes everyday canned breadsticks, and turns them into something special, and it only takes a few minutes! 

Ingredients:
1 tube (11 oz.) Breadsticks
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon table salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F degrees
Spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray

(I don't twist the dough like the directions on the package suggest. I keep them flat.)

Lay breadsticks out on cookie sheet (about an inch apart)

Bake breadsticks according to package directions (about 10-13 minutes).
While baking, make the garlic butter topping. Melt butter in small bowl and whisk in garlic powder and salt. Stir until combined.

When breadsticks are done, using a basting brush, coat breadsticks liberally with garlic butter.  Serve warm! 

Cook's Note: I love to make this quick version to serve with marinara sauce. Or to serve with pizza and spaghetti. If you like, you can even sprinkle a bit of dried oregano on these!

Enjoy!