Garlic knots

last week i was on an italian kick, you can see here, here, and here what i am talking about. between the recipe books and the kid's we cooked a lot last week.

friday morning j announced that he wanted pizza for dinner. as i was looking through jamie's italy i had marked off a pizza dough recipe, perfect. i will admit this to you, i have never made pizza dough. i just started cooking with yeast (see here), so i figured with all the culinary adventures i am taking, why not just go with it.

this pizza dough recipe was really easy and instead of kneading it by hand i went with the kitchen aid. after all, it came with a dough hook :-) although his recipe was perfect (all of his recipes are) we changed it up a bit.

this recipe lasted about 2 days in my house. we made 4 personal pizza's the first night. j and p had the usual cheese and mozzarella, e kicked it up a notch with chili flakes and basil, and i went for a salad slice (i had terrible heartburn). the second day we made garlic knots, fabulous! that night, pizza sticks, genius. great recipe that is going to made weekly here, i can promise you that. it was excellent and easy to make.

pizza dough and garlic knots
adapted from jamie oliver's jamie's italy
1 1/2 pounds flour1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour1 tsp salt1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast1 tbl sugar2 cups warm wateryou can do this by hand but a mixer is much easier, trust me, and takes less then half the time.

measure out 2 cups of warm water, to the measuring glass add your sugar and yeast, mix up and set aside for 5 minutes or so. 

in a mixer with your dough attachment attached add: flour (both kinds) and salt. start mixing, add your water, yeast and sugar mixture and let it go. on a medium speed it takes about 2 minutes.

in a big bowl, i use a mixing bowl, add a little flour. take your dough and roll it into a ball with your hands and gently place in the bowl. cover with plastic wrap and let it stand out for about 2 hours, it will double in size.

either use it right away or refrigerate it.

for the garlic knots i took a small piece from the dough and rolled it out. with a pizza slicer (you could use a knife) cut strips. tie into a knot and place on a baking sheet. i sprinkled the dough olive oil, fresh parsley and garlic and baked for 10 minutes.

my kids love cheese, so when i took then out of the oven, we sprinkled some parm over and served with tomato sauce for them to dip.

i love trying new things. i never cook with whole wheat flour so that was a first for me, you can of course use regular white flour if you choose. next time i foresee the addition on honey in the dough :-)