How to Make Homemade Garlic Rolls
If you want a recipe to make homemade garlic rolls at least part of the way in a bread machine, you could use your machine for a part of the process, though it is very fast to whip up with an electric stand mixer. It would take more time to get your bread machine out of the cabinet than it does to make them in your electric stand mixer. It is impressively fast.
Still, others may prefer to pick up their own pizza dough, either from a local pizzeria or at the grocery store, and begin with that part already completed. Can I urge you one last time to try this amazing recipe for garlic rolls with my favorite recipe for homemade pizza? We typically have pizza night once a week. We bake this crust or use it on the grill (grilled pizza is an awesome thing), and now–I use it for garlic rolls!
The secret to this recipe, at least, as the bakers of many rolls share, is to always make the garlic roll topping fresh. While I feel like it really needs the addition of parsley to brighten the flavor and add that eye-catching appeal, if you don’t have it, you can still make them. I did that once before as well. Just be sure to grab parsley at the store for next time or, better yet, start a windowsill garden for the sole purpose of having parsley for these rolls. I think I may have a problem.
A Brief History of Garlic
Garlic has long been a part of our culinary heritage. For more than 5,000 years, this member of the onion family has been praised for its versatility in its use of cooking and its medicinal aspects. Even the Ancient Egyptians used garlic. So, too, did the Roman soldiers, Greek soldiers, and used by ancient Greeks in religious practices, and appeared in Egyptian tombs.
The Yale Babylonian Tablets, dating from 1600-1700 BCE even include recipes! Tablet YBC 4644 (link to an excellent article about the recipes) contains twenty-five Mesopotamian recipes. A French historian, Jean Bottéro, published the recipes in 1995, noting that each one contains garlic, leeks, and onion. His English version, (affiliate link, please read how I use Amazon to shop local) The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia
Yale Babylonian Tablets contain Mesopotamian #recipes using garlic!
Click To Tweet
Did you know that there are a slew of different varieties of garlic? How Stuff Works shares that there are more than 400 kinds of garlic. For the rest of us, we are more familiar with just two: a softneck type and elephant garlic (which isn’t actually a kind of garlic at all, but a leek). What’s more, did you realize just how much garlic people consumed? According to the USDA, Americans consumed 2.3 pounds of garlic in 2010. That is a lot of garlic! I must admit, I am sure that I eat much more than that. I am Italian, don’t you know?
The Agricultural Marketing Research Center points out another startling fact: China is the biggest producer of garlic by far. Can you believe that 2/3 of the world’s garlic comes from China? I had no idea. India and South Korea are the next big garlic producers but when it comes to world rankings, the United States comes in at eighth. According to the AGMRC, California harvested 23,000 acres of garlic in 2013. That’s a lot of garlic. Nevada, New York, Oregon, and Washington are other states with big acreage devoted to garlic.
Popularity Contest
But we aren’t alone. Here in the US, again according to AGMRC, garlic was used in the 1700s. Some sources say that garlic became popular with the influx of immigrants in the 1800s, but others say that it didn’t really become hugely popular until the 1920s. I can’t seem to dig in to the “why” behind that one, which is slightly driving me bonkers. Does it have to do with World War I? What about the 1800s? Do you know the answer?
The US is a top importer of garlic. 2/3 of the world's #garlic comes from China!
Click To Tweet
When used as a medicine, garlic is used both as a preventative and a treatment for a huge array of conditions. Fevers, coughing, high or low blood sugar, snakebite, cold, flu, tick bite prevention, coronary heart disease, heart attack…and the list of things that are often treated using a form of garlic on WebMD goes on and on. It boils down to a chemical in garlic called allicin. That chemical is also what is responsible for giving garlic its strong, notable odor.
Baking Your Garlic Rolls
Just do your best not to bake them to a medium or dark brown. You want the rolls to still stay light so the Garlic Butter Sauce will stick to them. In fact, it will look as though these rolls are underdone when you first take them out of the oven. They are not. Give one a little jab and you will see that they are firm to the touch. Looks can be deceiving.
You will see what I mean. I have made this recipe for garlic rolls many times since the first batch and almost feel a little guilty for not sharing them before now. But, as they say, it is better late than never. In the meantime, I’m going to go eat a garlic roll. I got this recipe from Online Athens but it hails from Marcella’s, a once popular pizzeria. Bakers shared the recipe with the news source and now, I am sharing it with you! Food, much like recipes, is always better when it is shared, don’t you think?
Italian Pizzeria Garlic Rolls Recipe
The original recipe states that you will get 20 rolls but I make mine slightly different from the instructions. I do roll the dough into a "snake" shape but I don't make a knot. Instead, I sort of make a pretzel shape, I wrap the dough around so it still gives the roll ridges to hold on to the Garlic Butter Sauce. I typically get 10 rolls that are obviously much larger than the original recipe mentions. If I were making this for a crowd, I would make them smaller to stretch. I got this recipe from Online Athens newspaper website where it was shared by a former employee of a popular restaurant once found there that is now a part of local memory.
Ingredients
- 1 Pound Pizza Dough
- ¼ Cup Olive Oil, and more for brushing on rolls
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ¼ Cup Butter
- 3 Tablespoons Garlic, Minced
- 2 Tablespoons Parsley, Chopped
Instructions
- Make the rolls either by following the package directions or by shaping rolls by hand.
- To make rolls by hand, roll pizza dough in a log 1" in diameter. Cut into 4" lengths and tie into a knot.
- Brush heavily with Olive Oil and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Cover with a towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
- 375* oven.
- Sprinkle rolls with Salt and bake 375* for 15 minutes (I typically bake for 13-14 minutes for a slightly softer roll with a bit of exterior crunch).
- Meanwhile, place 1/4 Cup Olive Oil and Garlic in saucepan over low heat. Cook and stir for roughly five minutes and remove from heat before butter can brown. Keep warm.
- After the rolls are baked, immediately pour over the Garlic Butter sauce.
- Sprinkle with Parsley.
- Enjoy!
Small Towns: Destinations, not Drive-Thrus! I’m Jessica Nunemaker and THIS is little Indiana!
Just don’t forget to tell ’em that little Indiana sent you!
Targeted. Relevant. Affordable! little Indiana advertising.
The post How To Make Restaurant Style Garlic Rolls appeared first on littleindiana.com.