Pull Apart Gluten Free Garlic Knots | Gluten Free on a Shoestring (2024)

These pull apart gluten free garlic knots are made in a cast iron skillet, so they're crispy on the outside, soft inside. Packed with garlic and herb flavor, they're the garlic knots your guests will remember!

Perfecting gluten free garlic knots

In my house, everyone knows the rules about what I'm cooking and baking: Rule #1. Don't ask! The kitchen is not just the kitchen. It's myoffice, you know? And my laboratory.

If I have to try to put words to what I'm doing, or trying to do, it ruinseverything. I'm not thinking in words when I'm cooking, not yet. I'm thinking in concepts, and with my heart.

But when I'm taking my recipe for gluten free pizza and making it into gluten free garlic knots … for the third time in a week? Well there's no hiding in plain sight.

And apparently my children can't help themselves from, at the very least, excitedly sharing the “news” with one another. “Mom's making bacon garlic knots again!!” *subtle*

This is the best gluten free garlic knots recipe… seriously

These skillet garlic knots are more than “just” garlic knots. They're made in a cast iron skillet, which honestly makes alllll the difference.

Instead of fluffy, doughy garlic knots, these are just the right amount of crispy on the bottom and packed with all kinds of delicious flavor and texture—even if you make them without bacon.

Now I haven't tried this or anything, but I suspect that these would even work with my yeast-free gluten free pizza crust. And then of course there'd be no rising.

You'll miss out on all the yeasty goodness in the flavor, but the texture should still be quite good. And with all that bacon, garlic, oregano and basil goodness going on, how could you go wrong?

Ingredients to make gluten free garlic Parmesan knots from scratch

• Gluten free pizza dough – Most of the recipes for gluten free pizza dough here on the blog would work here, except the NY-style crust, or the chickpea crust, which are way too wet to be shaped. The gf pizza dough recipe that I recommend most, though, is our gluten free calzones recipe, as it's very easy to shape and doesn't rise too high.
• Bacon – The only part of the bacon that we really need to make these garlic knots is the rendered fat when you cook it, and that can easily be replaced with more olive oil. Only use the bacon if you want that hit of flavor, and the lovely texture.
• Olive oil – There's both olive oil in the pizza crust here, and in the oil we use to cook the garlic and, ultimately, the garlic knots. It adds a ton of flavor, and can be used to replace the bacon fat, too.
• Garlic – Since these are garlic knots, a few cloves of garlic are central to the flavor. But if you don't want to bother cooking it first in the skillet, you can leave it out, use garlic powder instead, or just add extra dried herbs for more flavor.
• Salt – Salt brings out all the other flavors, and helps tame the yeast in the pizza dough recipe, too.
• Dried oregano and basil – Oregano and basil are the classic pizza spices, and I like to use dried herbs here since they have so much flavor in such a small package. It also makes it more likely that you'll have all the ingredients in your pantry to make these garlic knots.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese – A sprinkling of finely grated Parm after these garlic knots are done baking in the skillet adds all that flavor, but without the risk of overbaking it and making it crunchy in the oven.

Tips for making perfect gluten free pull-apart rolls

Choose and measure your gluten free flour the right way

Like all baking recipes that aren't truly flourless, choosing your gluten free flour blend, and measuring it accurately, is the most important thing you'll do to set yourself up for success.

Here, I find that the absolute best choice for yeast bread is Better Batter's classic blend (or our mock Better Batter), with additional tapioca starch/flour for flexibility and chew. And always measure your flours by weight, on a simple digital scale, for accuracy.

Portion your rolls carefully for easy shaping and even cooking

I used to make smaller garlic knots, like you can see in the second full size photo in this post, and divide the dough into 2 dozen pieces. But I find that it's much easier to shape larger pieces of dough into knots, I now make this recipe into about 14 pieces, each about 1.5 ounces in weight.

I highly recommend you portion your dough into pieces using that digital kitchen scale you used to measure your flours. That way, you won't end up with some pieces that are too small to shape, or knots that bake at different rates.

Use the middle oven rack for all-around browning

If you have a gas oven, the bottom rack is closest to the heat and will crisp your garlic knots very quickly, perhaps before they're fully cooked through. The top rack is too far from the concentrated heat and browning takes too long. The middle rack has the most air circulation, and is juuuuust right.

Taper your pizza dough ropes at each end

The gf pizza dough we're using can be shaped, but it's still not quite as stretchy as “regular” gluten pizza dough, since it's the actual gluten that provides stretch. To make your ropes of dough easy to knot, as you're shaping the ropes of dough, pressing lightly toward the ends, press a bit more firmly toward the ends. This will help you feed one end through the loop you create in the center to form a knot.

Be patient as your yeast dough rises

Since we're not making pizza with this dough, we need more rise than just the oven spring (the part of the yeast bread rise that happens in the oven). Be sure to cover your shaped gf garlic knots well so they don't dry out, and be patient until they swell to about 50% bigger (less than double, which is 100% bigger) than their original size.

Yeast bread rises more slowly in a cool, dry kitchen environment, and faster if it's warm and humid. But overproofing is not a function of too long a rise, but too much rising.

Serving gluten free garlic cheese knots

My favorite way to serve these garlic knots is really simply, with some of our best tomato sauce for dipping. Here are some other serving suggestions, some of which will make these knots into a full meal:

• Serve with store-bought pesto sauce, and even try brushing some on the raw, raised knots before you bake them;
• Drizzle with a fancy flavored olive oil right before serving, or use that fancy oil for dipping;
• Serve a half recipe of these knots alongside our lazy summer pasta for a decadent, easy meal;
• Pair these garlic knots with some more finger foods like gf pizza rolls on game day.

How to store leftover gluten free garlic knot bread

Like any yeast bread, these gf garlic knots are best the day they're made (that's why they call it “day old bread”!), but if you bake them until they're just slightly brown on top, they'll stay fresh in a sealed container at room temperature for another day or so.

It's best to wait until the day you plan to serve the knots to shape and bake them. But, since you can make the unshaped pizza dough days ahead of time and store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator, you can make the process easily at the last moment.

Do not freeze the raw yeast dough, shaped or unshaped. It may not rise when it thaws, and it's not worth the risk!

Gluten free garlic knots: ingredient substitutions

Dairy free, gluten free garlic knots

The only dairy in this whole recipe is the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese that's sprinkled on the hot, just-baked garlic knots. To make gluten free dairy free garlic knots, you can leave that step out entirely.

For a dairy-replacement alternative, try a dairy-free cheese that you grate finely. I really love Violife brand. A light sprinkling of nutritional yeast would also taste great and even a bit cheesy.

Yeast free, gluten free garlic knots

To make this recipe without yeast, try using our yeast free gluten free pizza dough as the base pizza recipe. The dough will be slightly harder to shape, will be missing that yeasty flavor, and you'll skip the rising entirely, but there should still be enough flavor to keep everyone satisfied!

Meat free, gluten free garlic knots

It's easy to make this recipe meat-free by just omitting the bacon. You'll need to replace the bacon grease with more olive oil, but that's easy as can be! To make sure there's enough flavor, you can try doubling up on the dried herbs and/or the garlic.

GF garlic knot flavor variations

Think of these garlic knots like a blank canvas for your favorite pizza flavorings and toppings. Here are some suggestions:

• Pepperoni pizza pull-aparts — cook chopped pepperoni instead of bacon, then sprinkle with finely chopped or grated mozzarella cheese right after baking, and serve with marinara sauce
• Taco-spiced pizza knots – Add some olive oil to our homemade gluten free taco seasoning to make a paste, and brush that on the knots after rising. You won't even need to sauté the bacon or the garlic, since we'll have plenty of flavor; just replace the bacon grease with extra virgin olive oil.

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Gluten free garlic knots recipe