So, if you’ve been watching the news, you might have seen that the Seattle area has had a tad bit of crazy weather lately.
On top of the snow, we’ve had an ice storm, wind storms, and possible flooding on the way. It’s just so much fun! (Please note my sarcasm.) One of the joys of living in the far-out burbs, is that we have lots of trees – and when you have a lovely combination like I’ve mentioned, it can lead to only one thing: a Power Outage. (Yes, I capitalized it on purpose.)
(The last time we had a serious power outage, I was 9 1/2 months pregnant with my oldest – and the power was out for seven days. Let’s just say that we bought a generator that year. Such a good choice – at least for some heat.)
This time, thankfully, our power was out for less than 24 hours (knock on wood – there’s still wind on the way). But it sure put a cramp in my cooking style and my ability to see what else was going on in the social media world. (I know, you’re shedding a tear for me right now.) But that’s okay. We did family bonding time. (And we didn’t kill each other. Yay!)
Anyhow, while the power was flickering off and on the other night, I was able to (barely) pull off these golden warm copycats of one of my favorite bread products.
The Recipe:
Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks, adapted from full bellies.happy kids
1 1/2 c warm water (between 110 – 120 degrees)
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/4 c bread flour
2 T butter, melted
2 T sugar
1 T salt (or less, if you used salted butter)
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Butter topping:
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 t garlic powder
2 t salt
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In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered. Mixture should be frothy.
In separate bowl, combine flour and salt. Add to yeast mixture. Add melted butter. Mix with dough hook of stand mixer or wooden spoon until fully combined. Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Do not over-knead!
Grease a cookie sheet. Pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips. Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Make your butter topping. Bake breadsticks for 12-15 minutes. About 6 or 7 minutes in, brush the breadsticks with half the butter mixture. Then continue to bake.
Immediately upon removal from the oven, brush the other half of the butter on the sticks.
The Results:
These were certainly an adventure to make. A little power out here, and a quick flicker there, really added to the ambiance of baking breadsticks. I was just hoping I could get them finished.
And I did.
Now, if you can ignore my inability to make consistent oblong shapes, you can see that they got to rise about a half hour more than the 45 minutes called for – because we lost power right about when I was going to put them in.
So, I’m not sure if it was the extra rising, or the fact that I placed both cookies sheets of breadsticks in at the same time (or that I kept checking them every three minutes after the original twelve), but I ended up baking them for a full half hour. And when they came out, wow, did they look good.
The salty garlic butter topping seemed really potent to me, as I mixed it up – and from the small taste of it I got from my fingers after holding the breadsticks for coverage. I was worried it was going to be too much flavor…but it wasn’t. Since the breadsticks were both so thick and light, the butter topping was actually quite perfect.
This may not be an exact copy of their breadsticks, but they are pretty darn close, if you ask me. They were a huge hit with the whole family – but seriously, how can you go wrong with bread, butter, and garlic?
And they sure did the trick as an addition to our last fully cooked meal (before the power went out, that is).
Cross your fingers for me that we’re done with the crazy weather for a while. Please.
I live with a man who is an amazing cook. I am definitely not. But I'm learning. Join me as I share the ups and downs of figuring out this cooking thing.
Mmm, Courtney they look like the real thing but better! Glad your power came back on and that you enjoyed some family bonding time!
I haven’t been to the Olive garden in such a very long time.. so when I see this recipe.. I am thinking about shrimp and pasta and alfredo sauce. Yeah.. I need to return to that restaurant sometime LOL. Your bread-sticks looks great
We had a blackout recently too, due to heavy almost torrential downpour – not nice! But your breadsticks look lovely – and garlic bread of these sounds even better!
Those breadsticks look sooooooo good. I am amazed that the minute you had power, you made HOMEMADE bread-sticks! You are getting to be quite the “bread from scratch” pro. I can count on one hand the times i have made any kind of bread from scratch and I keep seeing your beautiful things here and yet I am still slightly afraid of the difficulty level. Yet, you keep telling me that’s it’s easy. I can’t believe how much snow you have had! We had snow once about an inch and we were very excited as you could tell from my Christmas card! P.S. I bought a new bowl with my $20 from Sur La Table! I was sooooooooo excited to shop for myself and not feel guilty to be spending money. Thanks!
I love those bread sticks, butter and garlic it must taste heavenly!
Hats off to you for doing this in such weather conditions
Hope things dry up soon. Those bread sticks look amazing!
I certainly do not miss that weather!!! I hope warmer times are coming soon for you!! And what better time than to bake bread…well, it helps if the power stays on, but thru it all, they look fabulous!!
I cannot imagine 7 days without power! Yikes! So glad it was much shorter this time around. And your weather – yuck! I’ll take our 6 inches of snow to ice any day. Now, about these breadsticks – YUM! I have no doubt I’d have to make two batches of these because they would be devoured.
Omg – how the heck did you survive that long without power? Glad everything turned out OK for you Courtney! These breadsticks look delicious.
I love Seattle, I spent three weeks there about this time last year. Had a lovely amount of snow to play in, but nothing as crazy as I’ve been reading about at the moment! Your bread looks yum, perfect comfort food in such snowy conditions.
Your breadsticks look wonderful! I’d love to just grab one off my screen!
Yikes on the power, hope you don’t have to deal with that again. So glad you enjoyed the breadsticks, they really are delicious
Yuuuummmm! I love their breadsticks! So nice to see a copycat recipe, especially since they look spot on! Indeed, you can’t go wrong with butter, garlic, and bread
I just wanted to tell you the good news…these are being featured today
Thank you so much for sharing on Mix it up Monday!
Wow!! I am so honored – thanks Lisa!!
As you say how can you go wrong with bread, butter and garlic! These look and sound delicious