Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Place your dough on a clean, floured surface.

Using a pizza cutter cut the dough in half,

Then pick up the dough and work it a little with your hands to stretch it out.

I am not a pizza pro which means no throwing it up in the air for me.  Instead I think of it as a steering wheel and turn, turn turn the dough allowing its own weight to stretch it out a bit. until its about ½ inch thick and in rectangle shape .

Cut the dough into strips about 8 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide.  To shape into a knot simply...gently tie it as you would a shoe by making an "x" then looping one end through, pull it gently until the knot is loosely formed, then tuck the ends under and place it on your lightly floured baking sheet, pizza tray or stone.

Repeat with the other half of the dough. Be sure to leave room between each knot since they will rise while baking.

Brush the knots with a bit of oil, then pop them into the oven.

Melt the butter, mince the garlic and combine the two into a small bowl.

Season with some salt and pepper, stir it up well and if you like add in 1 TBS chopped parsley. Once the knots begin to turn golden, remove them from the oven (10-14 minutes...depending on size and preference of the color of the crust).

Immediately dunk them one by one (or use a pastry brush) into the butter mixture and serve.

To make the loaded Garlic Knots 2-3 minutes before the garlic knots are done to your liking, pull them out of the oven and quickly brush them with the garlic butter mixture, sprinkle them with Mozzarella cheese and place them back into the oven until done.  Pull them out, brush them again with a bit of the garlic butter mixture, sprinkle with bacon and some extra parsley and serve.

Colleen's Notes: We are garlic lovers, so the fresh taste of garlic on these knots is a welcomed bite.  If you want less of a "bite" from the garlic, simply melt your butter in a small pot along with your minced garlic.  A couple minutes of heat will tame the garlic down a bit.