I like watching videos of other people embarking on ambitious projects, but it isn’t always the energy that I can spare for my hobbies. Once in a blue moon, I get inspired to create a 4-part chocolate entremet to serve after dinner, but more often, I want something that is effortlessly doable. Life isn’t an ASMR video, and we have lives - and daily tasks! - to compete for our attention.
I stepped away from baking for a year or so, and baking’s one of those activities where the longer you stay away from, the more ennui there is to resume. This recipe contained the magic words that pulled me out of my baking funk: you can use store-bought pizza dough. And it looked pretty fun.
If any store-bought dough is okay, then an easy focaccia recipe, one that I've done several times, should be fine too. And with the promise of making something familiar, it was easier to get started again. Where is my baking equipment? (Check the bottom of the cabinets). Are my flour still okay? (They aren’t. But beneath the two half-opened bags of flour that is now developing weevils and should have been tossed back in 2023, there’s a new unopened bag). We changed ovens a few months ago; why are there so many buttons on this new gizmo and where’s the bake function? (I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.)
At the time when most sane people were turning into bed, I cleaned out my cupboards. I threw away the two bags of opened flour, alongside a half-opened pack of instant yeast that had also turned bad. I found a new pack of instant yeast (new being a relative term given it was still past the Use By Date by a couple of months, but the yeast bubbled merrily when added to tepid water and a tablespoon of sugar.) How fortunate. How lucky.
I mixed the flour, yeast, salt and water together, and left them to proof overnight. The next day was the fun part: cutting up the dough and tying them into knots, then baking them off in a mixture of melted butter, minced garlic and Parmesan cheese.
It was easy as promise, and delicious. It is garlic bread, baked in a fun way. You don’t need exact proportions for this recipe. There’s no way to ruin Parmesan cheese, garlic and melted butter.
Pull-Apart Garlic Bread Knots
Original Recipe by J. Kenji López-Alt
INGREDIENTS
1-2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
Olive oil, enough to drizzle over the circumference of a skillet about 5-6 times, plus more for finishing
1 head of garlic, minced
A large pinch of salt
Chopped parsley, plus more for garnish
1 focaccia dough recipe, proofed overnight. Alternatively, any store-bought pizza dough would do (roughly about 450g)
Parmesan cheese (grated), plus more for garnish
STEPS
Garlic-Butter Recipe
1. In a 10.25” cast iron skillet set over low heat, combine butter and olive oil until the butter has melted. (You can also use a saucepan or a regular skillet, but I choose a cast iron, since I want to use it later to bake the bread.)
2. Add the minced garlic and salt, and then remove the saucepan from heat. Stir to combine, letting the minced garlic cook in the mixture for about 1-2 minutes until golden, then pour out the butter-garlic mixture from the skillet to a small bowl to prevent burning. Set aside. Add the chopped parsley if using.
Focaccia Dough Recipe
3. Turn out the proofed dough onto an oiled surface, and lightly oil the surface of the dough. Divide the dough into halves, then halve each portion twice more, then again into thirds, until you have about 24 pieces.
4. Stretch out each small piece of dough into a rope, and then tie a simple knot. Use a bit more olive oil to oil the dough if needed to help with the knot-tying. Toss each piece of dough knot into the cooled butter mixture.
5. Return the dough and butter mixture to the cast-iron skillet (or to a cake pan if that's what you're using.) Stir the mixture around to thoroughly coat each dough knot with the butter/oil, then cover and let the dough rise further in the skillet until about roughly doubled in size, about 2 hours at room temperature.
6. Preheat the oven to 220C. Top the bread generously with grated parmesan, and then bake for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Drizzle the bread with more olive oil, and top with more grated parmesan and parsley (to taste). Let cool slightly then serve.
