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These soft gluten free breadsticks are a homemade version of the famous Olive Garden breadsticks. Fluffy and soft inside, with a thin, almost crispy layer outside, and covered in garlic butter.
Table of Contents
When my bread book first came out, I was so excited. My gluten free son could finally taste real BREAD. He would know what that chew was like, and what yeast bread actually is meant to taste like.
I still am so excited when I think about how far we have come in baking really good gluten free yeast bread. I knew that it would take some adjusting. Up until that point, gluten free yeast bread dough was a batter, and could only be shaped with very wet hands. I was so happy to leave that behind!
I knew the new ingredients would take some getting used to. I thought you might have a bit of trouble finding them, and I tried to prepare everyone as best I could. But I wasn't prepared for a certain reaction that you might have to the dough…
Most of the recipes in the book have two rises, like traditional yeast bread. The first rise is before shaping, and it's when the yeast actually develops and adds flavor to the bread.
I like that first rise to be in the refrigerator, since that slows down the yeast development. And it also makes the dough easier to handle. The second rise is after shaping.
Before the book came out, though, I had no idea how impatient you might be about waiting for the bread dough to rise in the refrigerator! That first rise nearly did you in, it seems. If you look at the early reviews of the book, you'll see.
I started recommending that you begin with this recipe for Garlic Butter Soft Gluten Free Breadsticks from page 177. These breadsticks are legendary at Olive Garden restaurants, and I knew you missed them.
And the best part? They only need one rise! They're made with our gluten free bread flour blend, so they must be magic after all.
The flavor of these breadsticks comes almost entirely from the butter-rich dough, and the garlic butter generously slathered on top, both in the middle of and at the end of baking.
This recipe was reproduced, with permission, on a popular commercial website when the book was released in 2013. Over time, the link has disappeared, though. I
had to be sure that you had the recipe, whether you have the book or not. And I thought a video of my making and shaping them might help, too.
Especially during the fall and winter holidays, when family and friends are gathering around the table to share hearty meals, we need bread. These gluten free breadsticks are the ones that you can proudly serve to gluten-free and gluten-eaters alike, without asking permission or forgiveness.
Soft Gluten Free Breadsticks | Olive Garden Style
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Ingredients
For the bread dough
- 4 ¼ cups (595 g) gluten free bread flour, (click thru to the must-use gf bread flour blend) plus more for sprinkling
- 2 teaspoons (6 g) instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons (24 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons (12 g) kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 ⅜ cups (11 fluid ounces) warm water, (about 95°F)
For the garlic butter
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
Instructions
Make the dough.
- Place the gluten free bread flour, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer, and use a handheld whisk to combine well. Add the salt, and whisk to combine.
- Add the butter and water, and mix on low speed with the dough hook until combined.
- Raise the mixer speed to medium and knead for about 5 minutes. The dough will be quite sticky, but should be smooth and stretchy.
- Spray a silicone spatula lightly with cooking oil spray, and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Shape the dough.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth by sprinkling very lightly with more gluten free bread flour and turning it over on itself gently.
- Divide the dough into 12 pieces of equal size (each about 3 1/2 ounces).
- Working with one piece at a time (covering the other pieces with a moist tea towel when you're not working with them), shape into a round, then pat into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick and about 4 inches long.
- Fold the rectangle along the length halfway, from bottom to top, and top to bottom. Fold the smaller rectangle now in half, each side just folded over one another.
- Roll the dough back and forth on the lightly floured surface to seal the edges well, and to elongate it slightly until the dough is about 7 inches long, tapering the dough on both ends.
- Place the shaped dough on the prepared baking sheet, each piece about 2 inches apart from the other.
Let the dough rise.
- Once all the breadsticks are shaped, cover the baking sheet with oiled plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free location to rise until the breadsticks are nearly doubled in size (about 1 hour, depending upon the environment).
- About 25 minutes before the dough has finished rising, remove the plastic and preheat your oven to 375°F.
Bake the rolls.
- Once the breadsticks have finished rising, remove the plastic, place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 350°F. Bake for 5 minutes.
- While the breadsticks are baking, melt the butter for the garlic butter in a small, microwave-safe bowl or in a small saucepan. Mix in the garlic salt.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and brush each breadstick generously with the garlic butter.
- Return the breadsticks to the oven and continue to bake until they are lightly golden brown all over (about another 5 minutes).
- Remove the breadsticks from the oven and brush again with garlic butter. Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Nicole, you say these are one rise in your instructions. Does it make a difference if they rise twice?
If you’d like to refrigerate it so you can work with the dough cold, you can place it in a sealed container briefly in the refrigerator, Emmy, but otherwise there is only one rise, after shaping. You should not alter the recipe by having it rise, then punching it down or otherwise treating it as if it were gluten-containing.
Hello, if the dough rises in the fridge (say overnight) do you still rise the rolls once they are shaped the next day? In essence then, it would rise twice. Thank you
Yes, Emmy, just as the instructions state.
Hi Nicole, this is my first attempt at using your Mock Better Batter bread flour. The dough was amazing to work with after resting in the fridge overnight, easy to shape and rising nicely! But they were not soft and fluffy after baking. I had to bake them longer to get a little golden and they are rather dense and dry. Any ideas what went wrong? Also, any way to soften them up or use them? Don’t really want to toss them out. Thanks, Eva
It sounds like you probably incorporated too much flour into the bread during shaping, Eva. That, or there was an error in making the mock Better Batter or bread flour, or you made substitutions. There are a lot of elements in the mock Better Batter and the bread flour.
Hi Nicole! Can you make the bread sticks dough in advance and/or make ahead and freeze them?
Hi, Julie, you can definitely make these in advance and freeze them. Whichever breadsticks you don’t expect to serve right away, I would stop baking before that final 5 minutes after which you brush with butter and return to the oven. Then, defrost them at room temperature, brush with butter and finish baking before serving. You can also make the dough, put it in a tightly sealed container and store it in the refrigerator for a few days and then shape and bake before serving, too.
Thank you so much! I appreciate the advice. :-)
My pleasure, Julie!
Ok, thanks Nicole. I didn’t need to use more than a scarce bit for shaping and I didn’t make substitutions. Can they be softened up or used in any other way?
You could use them to make gluten free breadcrumbs, Eva!
Hi Nicole! Hoping you can help. I want to make a test batch of these for Christmas and since there are only two of us gluten-free, I was wondering how well these freeze after being baked or if I can bake of a few and freeze the dough and bake on Christmas?