I find a lot of great ideas on Pinterest… but pinning something doesn’t do anything unless I actually, you know, try the idea. So I thought it’d be fun to challenge myself to do at least one Pinterest experiment every week — and blog my results.
I can’t promise that I’ll always have a Pinterest Experiment post up each week, because you know how I sometimes get distracted or on blog tangents. But I’m at least going to try. By the way, you can follow my Pinterest account here, if you’re interested.
I had really high hopes for these Olive Garden Breadsticks. Unfortunately, I didn’t think they lived up to their name.
They were decent, but nowhere near fantastic. It may have been because I used half whole-wheat flour and salted butter (because that’s all I had).
I love this Bread Machine Bread Stick Recipe much, much more. But maybe that’s because I prefer my breads to be more on the sweet and fluffy side?
Have you tried any ideas or recipes you’ve found on Pinterest this week? If so, how did they turn out for you?
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{ 23 comments... read them below or add one }
Half whole wheat flour does make a big difference. I doubt the salted butter mattered.
I agree, the butter would not have mattered much but it was the whole wheat flour. Olive Garden breadsticks are light in texture and whole wheat would make them a lot more dense. You can’t make a copycat recipe with adjustments and expect to garner the same results! And I say that in a very polite way, I know it’s hard to tell tone on the internet
Try them again with regular flour and I suspect they’ll be a lot different!
Too bad. We love Olive Garden and I was hoping to try these soon. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
I made these a few weeks ago and I used white flour. They still didn’t turn out very good. They were not light and fluffy like I was expected but rather heavy. I don’t know enough about making bread to know how to tweak it to make it better. Any suggestions??
I’d recommend trying the other recipe I linked to in the post. I think it’s a really fantastic recipe!
yep, we just had them for dinner, and they are tooooo goood!
I was actually going through earlier today and deleting pins I know I’ll never never use because it’s overwhelming me! I was trying to do two or three a month but I often forget about them. I think one a week is a great idea, and this way I can make myself pick a pin to focus on every Sunday evening when I sit down to do my goals for the week!
I tried this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/almost-famous-breadsticks-olive-garden-copycat-369426 a few months back and it was really delicious. I did cut the salt back a little bit, but otherwise followed the recipe. SO, so good!
Also, the recipe calls for a stand mixer and then says to knead by hand. I did knead in my stand mixer, after all that’s one reason why I bought it!
By the way – your post says “salted butted…” I think you mean butter!
Thanks for catching the typo!
The best recipe I have tried recently is a chocolate peppermint m&m cookie! I made them with white chocolate peppermint m&m’s. To keep track of recipes, I have created a ‘Pinned it, tried it…it’s a keeper’ board. This way I can add any notes about recipes that I have tried.
I made some breadsticks before that we didn’t really care for but I used them to make croutons. They were SO good! That might be an option if you don’t want to throw them out.
Oh, fantastic idea!! Thank you!
Sorry they didn’t turn out! I doubt this made the difference, but thought I’d pass along something I learned from a chef: don’t buy salted butter because the salt is only there to hide impurities in the butter.
Very interesting; thanks for that tip!
I love the idea of seeing how peoples pins turn out, so this will be a series I should enjoy. I love using pinterest like a digital scrapbook. I use it more for inspiration. And a place to store recipes I’ve already made.
I love your bread machine breadsticks! I’m not sure I would ever turn back after making them:)
Do you have a recipe for the Olive Garden Breadsticks that does not use a bread machine. Sorry to say, I don’t have one. Is a bread machine something that gets used a lot?
I’ve had quite a bit of success with recipes on Pinterest; but I almost always modify some of the ingredients based on my cooking experience.
We have an olive garden bread stick recipe that we absolutely love — if you’re up for trying again, I recommend these:
http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2011/04/olive-garden-breadsticks.html
I was going to try & do one pinterest project a week. I made some meatballs that did not taste good that called for fresh basil. We ate it but I had to add sauce to it. I have made some cinnamon rolls that turned out pretty good. I made pie crust for my pie during Thanksgiving. I always seem to read the extra comments for suggestions of what to do/not to do.
I made the bread machine breadsticks you recommended about a month ago and I have to tell you I love these breadsticks. I loved it with garlic butter brushed on the top fresh out of the oven.
This one tastes great to our family! I’m sure you could sub whole wheat in it. It’s VERY close to the real think in my opinion.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/recipe?id=11745412