Skillet-Baked Pepperoni Garlic Knots

Skillet-Baked Pepperoni Garlic Knots are a great football food recipe – Pizza dough is tied and tossed with pepperoni, garlic, herbs, and cheese.

Garlic Knots are no stranger to this site, and these Parsley Butter Brushed Garlic Knots and Super Fluffy Jumbo Garlic Knots are some of the earlier recipes that I’ve ever posted here. I’ve always had a thing for bread and pizza, and I have my older brother Andrew to thank for that. My family has literally been calling him the “Bread Beast” and “Pizza Monster” since he was a little boy. You know, in the most loving way, of course, haha!

For this recipe, you take the same garlic knot pizza dough from this post, but instead of spreading them out onto a baking sheet, you cram them into a skillet or a baking dish with some fried pepperoni, garlic, herbs, and mozzarella. It’s a kind of mock skillet pull bread that is part garlic knot and part fluffy roll.

And, you can change up the mix-in ingredients as you’d like. Another one I like to make is with crumbled hot Italian sausage and sauteed mushrooms, instead of the pepperoni. Feel free to mix in lots of different ingredients!

To get started, combine warm water, yeast, and a tiny bit of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and let it sit for 10 minutes until foamy:

When the mixture gets foamy, it means the yeast is alive and well! Let’s proceed.

Add bread flour, salt, and olive oil to the wet ingredients, and use the dough hook to roughly combine:

Attach the bowl to the mixer and knead with the dough hook for about 10 minutes, until smooth:

Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for about an hour.

It will have doubled in size, like this:

Roll the dough into a rectangle and divide it into 16 strips:

Now let the dough rest while you prep the mix-in ingredients.

Fry pepperoni in a touch of olive oil for a couple minutes until crispy, then add tons of minced garlic and red pepper flakes:

Toss that around for a minute, then pour into a large bowl. Add parsley and mozzarella cheese:

Tie all the dough strips into knots (take a look at this post if you don’t know how, but it’s just a simple knot), then toss them in the pepperoni bowl:

Pour everything into a 12” cast-iron skillet or an 8×11 baking dish:

It will look like there aren’t enough knots to make the skillet full and happy, but don’t worry. After another rise, it will look like this:

Now the pizza bread is ready for a hot oven, where the dough will puff up and brown.

Serve the bread warm, and this is optional, but I like to pull a jar of marinara sauce from the pantry to dip the knots in:

Enjoy!

Skillet Pepperoni Garlic Knots

Servings: 12 -inch skillet

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

Total Time: 50 minutes mins

Skillet-Baked Pepperoni Garlic Knots are a great football food recipe – Pizza dough is tied and tossed with pepperoni, garlic, herbs, and cheese

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Ingredients

For the dough:

• 1 cup warm water about 115 degrees F
• 2.25 tsp quick rise yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 12.5 oz by weight bread flour (2.5 cups, if measuring)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 tsp salt

For the pepperoni bread:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 pound thick-sliced pepperoni cut into pieces
• 3 tbsp minced fresh garlic
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup shredded low-moisture mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup marinara sauce for serving, optional

Instructions 

• Start with the dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, yeast, and sugar. Let it sit for 10 minutes, until it gets foamy. Add the bread flour, olive oil, and salt, and mix briefly with the dough hook to roughly combine, then fit the stand mixer with the dough hook and bowl. Knead the dough for 10 minutes on medium low speed, until the dough is smooth. Scrape the dough off the dough hook, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, which should take about 60 minutes.
• On a lightly floured countertop, roll the pizza dough into a rectangle, and divide the dough into 16 pieces. Let the dough rest while you cook the pepperoni.
• In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the pepperoni slices and fry for 3 minutes until crispy. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for 1 more minute. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, then add the parsley and mozzarella cheese.
• Roll each piece of dough into a long rope about 5-6 inches long, then tie each one into a knot. Once you have tied up all the dough, toss the knots in the pepperoni mixture, and stir to coat. Transfer the knots and ingredients into a cast-iron skillet or 8×11 baking dish and cover with plastic wrap, so it doesn’t dry out. Let the dough rise for about 90 minutes to 2 hours, until the dough has puffed up and fills the dish.
• Bake the bread at 400 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Serve the pepperoni bread warm with marinara sauce on the side for dunking, if desired. Enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 202kcal, Carbohydrates: 22g, Protein: 7g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 14mg, Sodium: 202mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g

Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Author: Fifteen Spatulas