Olive Garden Breadsticks Copycat Recipe

An Olive Garden breadsticks copycat recipe has been eluding me for a while. I tried several breadsticks recipes that were too dense, way too salty, or too flavorless.  I finally settled on this recipe, which is actually very similar to my recipe for pizza dough! Combined with the tips for copycat Olive Garden breadsticks included after the recipe, this will make delicious, fluffy breadsticks that are almost as addicting as the original breadsticks at Olive Garden.

Olive Garden Breadsticks Copycat Recipe

• 1 1/2 cup very warm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (or 1 package)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 3/4 – 4 cups flour

Mix the yeast with the warm water and let sit for 10 minutes.  Add the sugar, butter and salt.  With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the bowl.  Turn the mixer up to a medium speed and let knead for 10 minutes.

Put the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

Break the dough into 12 equal sized balls.  Form each ball into a snake and place on a greased baking sheet.  Let rise 20 minutes.

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes until just beginning to brown on the top.

Olive Garden Breadsticks Copycat Topping

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Melt the butter and stir in the salt and garlic powder.  Brush over the hot breadsticks before serving.

Tips for making Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks

• Here’s an important bread-making tip I learned recently. This really made my breadsticks light and fluffy like Olive Garden’s.  Leave the dough a little sticky.  Don’t pack it so full of flour that it becomes dense and heavy.  A stickier dough is also easier to work with when forming it into something like breadsticks or rolls.  Add flour just until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl, then stop.  It shouldn’t stick to the bowl, but should still feel a little sticky to the touch.
• On colder days, I heat the oven to the lowest temperature (around 200), turn it off, and let my dough rise in the still-warm oven.
• A quicker way to make breadsticks is to roll out the entire batch of dough into a 10×14 rectangle, then cut it into 1 inch strips.