Garlic Buns

A soft bread bursting with flavor, both buttery and cheesy, great served with or without a dipping sauce, these garlic buns are the perfect side to accompany your favorite Italian dish!  Trust me, no pasta or pizza meal is complete without these!  

I already have a garlic knot recipe here on Vegan Empire, and the recipe is actually very similar, so what's the difference with these garlic buns?  Well, it's mainly that they're baked in a cake pan, so they rise higher up and become fluffier!

Just look at how good these look!  

Full of flavor and really soft on the inside, these are one of my favorite side dishes, if not my favorite! 

Another great thing about these buns is that they absorb more flavor that the garlic knots.  Even though the garlic knots are great, some of the topping drips off, but with these buns, the topping that drips off soaks the garlic buns as they bake, so they come out with a lot of seasoning!  

Also, in the recipe I mentioned adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegan parmesan, but you can change that up if you'd like.  You can add less, but being a cheeze lover I'd never do that unless I was running low on it, or you can smother the whole thing...it all depends on how much you'd like!  

Recipe

Makes about a dozen, depending on your knot size...

Ingredients 

For the Dough:
2 and 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 and 1/4 cups warm water
​3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. salt

For the Topping:
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup Miyokos vegan oat butter, melted*
1/4 - 1/2 cup Follow Your Heart Shredded Parmesan**

Directions

1. Before you start, grease a 9" cake pan with some extra "butter" and set aside. 
2. Start by making the dough.  To do this, add the water to a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top.  Allow to rest for 15 minutes in a warm spot to activate the yeast.
3. Mix in 2 cups of the flour.  Add the olive oil and salt as you continue to mix.
4. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 a cup at a time until all of it is incorporated into the dough.
5. Shape the dough into multiple strips and form each strip of dough into a knot and place it evenly spaced out on the prepared cake pan.  Don't worry if they're close together.
6. While the knots rise for a bit, make the seasoning by mixing together the melted butters, oregano, and 1/2 tsp of the garlic powder. Spread this topping evenly onto the garlic knots.  
7. Sprinkle the remaining garlic powder and parmesan cheese over the garlic knots.  If you want to add more parmesan that listed, feel free to do so as well!
8. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and once ready, bake the garlic knots in the preheated oven for some 20 minutes or until cooked thoroughly. 
9. Let cool for a while, serve, and enjoy!  

Notes

*I like using Miyokos Oat butter since it's creamy and tasty, but any vegan butter will work, including butter-flavored coconut oil :) 
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**Follow Your Heart Shreds seem to work best for this recipe as it melts great, but Violife parmesan will work too, as should any other shredded vegan parmesan!