Olive Garden Breadsticks

I made these bread sticks with dinner tonight. They were really good and really did taste like Olive Garden Bread sticks. They didn't get as golden brown as I would like but they were still vey yummy.

Olive Garden Bread sticks

Dough:
1 1/2 cups hot water
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs yeast
1 Tbs salt
2 Tbs butter, softened
4-5 Cups flour

Topping:
3 Tbs butter melted
sea salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

For the dough, pour the water into a stand mixer with the sugar and yeast, let that sit and froth for about 10 minutes. Add salt, butter, and 2 cups of flour. Mix the dough on low. Add the rest of the flour a half cup at a time, until dough scrapes the sides of the bowl clean. Mix the dough about 5 minutes on medium speed, until its soft and easy to work with. Roll the dough out into a long log, spray a knife with cooking spray and cut the dough into 12-14 pieces. Roll those pieces into long snakes. Spray 2 large cookie sheets with cooking spray, and lay the bread sticks out leaving about 2 inches between each one. Place them in the oven with the temperature turned to 170 degrees. Let them rise for about 15 minutes, or until doubled in size. Once risen, brush them with the 1 1/2 T of melted butter and sprinkle them with salt. Return them to the oven and heat to 400 degrees. Once it's preheated to 400 degrees bake them for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. While they are baking combine the rest of the melted butter with 1/4 t garlic powder. When the bread sticks are golden brown, remove them from the oven and brush them with the butter/garlic mixture.