So it’s almost 8am on this Friday morning and I realized I had schedule this post to go live at 3am, like I always do with my posts, but had completely forgotten to write anything before my “recipe rundown.” I didn’t write anything really to introduce you to these copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks or anything else at all. Whoops. Blogger fail. In over four and a half years of blogging, I don’t think I’ve ever done this before so that’s good at least.
It has totally been one of those weeks. I’ve been making the dumbest mistakes. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen I dropped a tin of cinnamon rolls upsidedown on the ground. Yesterday I made chocolate cupcakes and didn’t love how they turned out, so I baked another batch. The second batch somehow tasted like dirt. Yet despite all these little fails, I’ve been feeling really creative and inspired and have been brainstorming fun things to do next year. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Hopefully I don’t hurt myself in the process.
The dough recipe only has six ingredients! Get your ingredients and your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook ready to go. You can make this dough by hand, just get ready to knead for about 10 minutes.
Mix your wet ingredients in the bowl of the mixer and add some of the flour. Turn the mixer on low and add the remaining flour, mixing until incorporated.
Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough for about 7 minutes.
The dough should be smooth and elastic after kneading. This dough is such a breeze to work with!
Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Once doubled, your dough is ready to be portioned and formed into breadsticks!
Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. This is made easy and precise with a scale, each portion should weigh 2 ounces. You don’t have to use a scale but it makes things easier!
Roll each piece of dough into a 7-inch log shape. The logs don’t have to be perfect, they’ll puff up a bit during the second rise.
Cover again with plastic and let the dough logs rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake in a 400°F oven for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
As soon as the breadsticks come out of the oven, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with the salt and garlic powder mixture. Serve warm. Be careful, these are ADDICTIVE!
Recipe Rundown....
Taste: Buttery and garlicky, AKA amazing!
Texture: These breadsticks have a bit of a golden crust but are soft and fluffy inside yet chewy throughout.
Ease: Really easy! Homemade breadsticks may sound intimidating but there’s only a handful of ingredients and I’ve included step-by-step photos so you know exactly how to make them.
Appearance: Mouthwatering.
Pros: Have Olive Garden breadsticks at home whenever you want!
Cons: These are dangerously addictive.
Would I make this again? Mhmmm.
How to make Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks
Yield: 12 breadsticks
When it comes to bread baking weighing your flour will always ensure the best and most consistent results. If you like to bake consider investing in a kitchen scale if you don’t already have one, it makes a big difference!
Ingredients
For the dough:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
16 ounces (about 3 1/3 to 3 1/2 cups) bread flour
For the topping:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the water, yeast, sugar, and butter. Add in the salt. Attach the dough hook to the mixer and begin to gradually add the flour on low speed. Increase speed to medium and knead the dough for about 7 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic.
Remove the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
Divide the dough into 12 (2 ounce) portions. Roll each piece of dough into a 7-inch log. Place the dough logs on nonstick baking mat or parchment-lined baking sheets, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately brush with melted butter. Combine the salt and garlic powder and sprinkle evenly over breadsticks. Serve warm.
About Tessa...
Tessa is a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. She loves to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. She's on a mission to make the world a more unapologetically DELICIOUS place. Tessa lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
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55 Responses to “Copycat Olive Garden Breadsticks”
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These sound amazing, Tessa! I should make some next time we have pizza. 😀
Isn’t it annoying how some days just snowball? Here’s to staying creative! 🙂
Yum! I love the breadsticks from Olive Garden. Will try out this recipe soon!
These look delicious! Is it possible to use all purpose flour or will that completely change the outcome of the recipe?
The bread flour helps make these breadsticks nice and chewy, though you can use all-purpose flour the texture will just be a little different.
Olive Garden breadsticks are my favorite!!!!
That’s mainly the only reason I go to Olive Garden.
But I’m sorry, on your recipe you have 3 cups (16 oz) of bread flour…
But 3 cups is not the same as 16 oz…. So which one is it? 3 cups or 2 cups (16 oz) ???
Hi Emily, every single cup of any dry ingredient does not always weigh 8 ounces. In fact, flour often weighs almost half of that per cup. I’ve slightly adjusted the recipe to more accurately reflect this after weighing a cup of bread flour in my kitchen and getting 4.7 ounces, slightly more than this guide dictates: http://www.thekitchn.com/weight-conversions-for-flour-sugar-and-other-common-baking-ingredients-171316
These paired with my copycat olive garden salad recipe would be heavenly!
I made these over the weekend and they turned out really dense and doughy, even after I baked them for longer. Any idea what I did wrong?
Hi Rachel, so sorry these didn’t turn out! I know how disappointing that can be. It sounds like you may have used too much flour in the dough. Did you weigh the dough or measure with cups? Shortly after publishing this post I realized there was a small error from the conversion calculator I used to determine the flour’s volume measurement in cups based off the weight of the flour (which is what I used to make this recipe), which I adjusted as soon as I noticed on the same day. I really recommend weighing out your flour when baking, as noted in the headnote of this recipe, because it really helps to guarantee the best and most consistent results. Hope that helps you figure out what could have gone wrong.
Welcome Home sent me, but you will keep me!
Welcome Home sent me over.
Welcome home sent me
Doesn’t Olive Garden use olive oil on top? I could be wrong, but I didn’t think it was butter.
I made this last week and they turned out great I’m making them again right now but this time I put in 1/2 tea garlic will let you know the results
mix the dough smelled great
The results in putting in the garlic is great I will make it again
Glad to hear it!
I made these last night and they turned out amazing! AND…I have to confess I probably did everything wrong. (i.e. I used regular flour, I rushed the rising process with a warm oven by almost an hour, and I put them too close together on the baking sheet so they were touching after the second rise). So that’s how good this recipe is…If I can do it all messed up and still get amazing breadsticks you know it’s a ‘keeper’!!! >)
I’m so happy they turned out for you despite the changes you had to make. Thanks for leaving a comment!
Speed method- Make the dough as directed using a metal or glass bowl. Bring a small saucepan of water to a simmer and set the bowl with dough in it on the sauce pan. Make sure you oiled the bowl as directed and oiled the top of the dough and placed plastic wrap over it directly on top of the dough, not across the top of the bowl ( helps keep the warmth in). Let it sit for about 20 minutes, or doubled in size. Reheat the sauce pan of water to boiling and heat your oven to the WARM setting. Roll your dough out as directed and put the sheet of breadsticks and the pan of boiling water in the oven. Let it sit until almost doubled, then remove both pans and heat the oven the rest of the way, keeping the bread sticks warm. Cook as directed.
Makes super soft, light and fluffy, breadsticks in a fraction of the time! I started the recipe at 5 and my family finished eating all the breadsticks by 7 if that tells you anything. Less than 1.5 hours for fabulous breadsticks hot from the oven!
Uhmmm, just want to say that you are missing the alfredo sauce (recipe) that used to be served with the breadsticks at Olive Garden. Now, we have to request the alfredo sauce separately and I’m not sure that we don”t pay extra for it. Little serving dishes of sauce for each person makes it OK to double dip, LOL. I think there is a low fat recipe available on the net. Good breadstick recipe!
thankyou very much
I have a big italian dinner in the spring. I’d like to make these a couple of weeks in advance and freeze them. ANy suggestions?
Yummy… Bread… butter… garlic… I just can’t have enough of them.
These came out great! 2 tbsp. of butter for the topping sounded like a lot, but it’s definitely not. Also I added oregano to the topping. Yummy!
I’ve been using this recipe for a little while now and my family is absolutely in love with it! Thank you for sharing it!
Thank you sooo much for sharing. We don’t have Olive Garden in Germany, but I have been in the US and tried them and was really glad I was able to serve these to my family here. I made them quite a few times and everybody just loves them. Thank you!!
Hi! Just follwed your recipe and it turned out well. My breadsticks were just as you described- it was soft yet chewy throughout. I didn’t get the golden crust though- my bread was done before it has the chance to brown at the top. (The bottom was a different issue however, it was really browned but not bitter thank goodness. And it was really crunchy which I really liked)
Anyway, is it supposed to be a bit sweet? I can definitely taste the sugar on my batch. Next time, I’ll halve the sugar on the dough.
I only made half the recipe btw because those breadsticks are huge to my liking. I made 12 1-oz pieces instead and it was perfect for us. Thanks for the recipe!
It seems that I cann’t see some pictures from your website, maybe something wrong with my net, but it is very good tip for making bread, I like baking, thanks very much
I’d like to make these for a family dinner. Do you know how well they will hold up/taste if I make them the day before and reheat? Or could I make the dough the day before and bake the next day? Thanks!
These reheat pretty well in the oven! And you can always make the dough ahead of time 🙂
Hi colleagues, good paragraph and nice arguments commented here, I am really
enjoying by these.
I made a batch of these the other day and before I could even have 1 my husband and kids at them all! I turned around and made a second batch so I could have one and they turned out super amazing!! Just curious if you’ve baked then froze them or how I would go about freezing for next time so I can make a few batches at a time!! Thank you for your input!!
Fabulous, Brooke! For these, just shave a few minutes off the baking time then let them cool completely before freezing. I like to freeze them on a baking sheet until solid before removing to a ziptop bag so that they don’t stick together. Reheat in a 300°F oven until warmed through 🙂
I’m new to your site and I have tried a few recipes so far. They are all great, including this one. My family loved them and gobbled them up. My husband was so impressed!
These were EXCELLENT. I doubled the garlic/salt and butter toppings but other than that the recipe is absolute perfection… nicely done!
Thank you Tessa . My family loves ya! Will try this breadsticks.
Made the bread sticks turned out wonderful. Thank you for making my kid happy she enjoyed her spaguetti Alfredo and meatball paired with your bread stick recipe ! Watch the oven tough I felt the dough undercooked and left them 2 more mins in the oven..almost made a mistake..thankfully breadsticks were rescued just in time LOL.
Hi, I was wondering if I can use this in the bread machine, then bake them when dough is ready?
Don’t see why not!
Hi, I’m just getting into making bread at home and am currently waiting for my first rise on this recipe. Was curious if this is something that can be frozen and used a few at a time? Or do you have to make the whole batch?
Great recipe! Came out even better than OG. Thanks!
Love to hear that! Thanks!
Our local store just started selling Olive Garden brand dressing and croutons so I can replicate their Salad perfectly. I also can perfectly replicate their Zuppa Toscana soup. I was so happy to find this recipe because frankly on a tight budget I can make the entire meal for under $20 vs $75 plus tip when I take my family to the O.G. (Dont worry, I still go there on special occasions but the nearest one is a 2 hour drive). With your recipe, my meal was complete and the family DEVOURED the breadsticks. ThanK you so much! Brava!!!
That’s so awesome, Erin! What a savings 🙂
These are AMAZING!!!!!!! The recipe was easy to follow and the breadsticks came out great my family enjoyed I will be making these again!
Doesn’t the water have to be a certain range of temperature for yeast fermentation? (100 to 110 degrees)
This is a great blog. I love eating and making bread myself. I have been looking for different bread recipes like this one. Thanks for sharing . I’m so excited to try this. Certainly it will be great. I love using my bread machine. After try this one , I will try your other bread recipes for my bread machine. I am looking forward to your other recipes:)
OMG. I made these and my family requested for me to make them again. They are amazing. I highly suggest these.
Glad to hear that!
I have been making these at least once a week since I found this recipe. The dough is very easy to work with and very forgiving. My kitchen stays hot in the spring summer and fall thanks to the TX heat so sometimes the dough will get huge during the first rise but in the end they always comes out great. Thanks for the great recipe!
I just tried it now, it turned out pretty amazing. I’m loving your recipes. Although mine didn’t turned out golden brown, it’s delicious.
I wish you would of posted the correct measurements in cups not weight. I’m an experienced baker and never use a scale.
Hi Tessa, I’m new to your blogging site and I love that you have copycat recipes, but I would have liked to have the Alfredo recipe included with the bread sticks 🙁 I hope to try these soon.
Thanks
I would like to make these for my daughters wedding. I need to make about 250. Can I make them a head of time and warm them up as needed? If so, how far in advance can I start to make them and freeze them
This weekend I tried the copycat olive garden breadsticks for a first time and now the whole family love them! They can be a perfect choice for a picnic outside the city or just for an afternoon with the kids in the garden.