Homemade Olive Garden Bread Sticks

Ingredients:

For bread dough:

1 1/2 c. warm water

1 pkg. active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 t. yeast

4 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

2 T. butter, melted

2 T. sugar

1 T. salt

For topping:

1/2 c. butter

2 t. garlic powder

2 t. salt

Recipe:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Mixture should be frothy.

2. In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

3. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture. Add melted butter. Mix with paddle attachment of stand mixer of wooden spoon until fully combined.

4. Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Do no overknead.

5. Grease a cookie sheet. Pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips. (You should have somewhere near a dozen or so.)

6. Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.

7. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and once heated, pop in the bread sticks. In microwave, combine the ingredients for the topping (butter, garlic powder, salt).

8. After bread sticks have cooked for about 6-7 minutes, brush the bread sticks with half the butter mixture.

9. Continue to bake the bread for another 6-7 minutes, or until golden.

10. When done cooking immediately brush the other half of the butter on the sticks. Serve and enjoy!

Rating: 4 of 5

So, these bread sticks are not an exact copy of Olive Garden's bread sticks. But, when served with the right kind of Alfredo sauce they get pretty darn close. One thing that I am going to change is the rise time. I think there should probably be two different chunks of rise time. Like, 1 hour, shape the bread and another 45 minutes. The bread is really soft but compared to Olive Garden's bread sticks they are pretty thick and feel heavy. Other than that, though, they are good!

Source: Full Bellies. Happy Kids., Olive Garden Bread Sticks