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Spinach Artichoke Dip with Garlic Rolls is an ultimate party appetizer to make for your next potluck or a get together. Spinach Artichoke Dip, the creamy and ooey-gooey goodness is surrounded by freshly made garlic rolls in one skillet and then baked together. Serve them hot for your family and friends to dig in.
WHAT IS SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP?
Spinach Artichoke Dip is one of the most comforting and crowd-pleasing dips. This creamy, flavorful dip is loaded with variety of cheese, garlic, spinach and artichoke. Making this dip is easy and quick, just mix all the ingredients in a bowl and plop it in the oven to bake.
If you want to impress your family and friends, try this Spinach Artichoke Dip. You’ll see them devor this lip-smackingly good and addictive dip.
While it may look like a bowl full of calories with the variety of cheese used, I think it is okay to binge on this deliciousness occasionally, it’s worth it. And trust me, it is irresistible!
HOW TO SERVE SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP?
Spinach Artichoke Dip is best when served hot. Serve them with some fresh garlic rolls, baguette or any crusty bread. They can be served with some crackers, tortilla chips or some fresh veggies. If you have any left over, which is rare, you can either refrigerate and reheat by plopping back in the oven for a few minutes or serve them with your favorite pasta too. Frankly, I love to just dig into a bowl of this dip, as is!
WHAT ARE GARLIC ROLLS?
Freshly made from scratch using all-purpose flour and yeast, Garlic Rolls are the fluffy, pillowy-soft pull-apart bread rolls slathered with herbed garlic butter. These rolls can be eaten as is or served with any dip of your choice. You can check my detailed pictorial recipe here.
Notes:
- Do not skimp on dairy. While it may be high on calories, skimping on the amount of cheese will not give you the rich, creamy and delicious dip.
- You can use frozen spinach if that is more convenient. Thaw the frozen leaves, squeeze them completely dry and chop them well.
- While you can use fresh artichokes, cleaning and chopping them might be a little of a task. I prefer using tinned artichoke.
- Traditionally, Spinach Artichoke dip has Mayonnaise in it. Since I do not use eggs at home, I have replaced it with Ricotta cheese. If you want to use Mayonnaise, replace ¼ cup of Ricotta cheese with ½ cup of Mayonnaise.
- If want to make just the dip without garlic rolls or make them separately and and do not have the cream cheese at room temperature, you could follow this alternate method: Mix all the ingredients except lemon zest and half the quantity of mozzarella cheese in a sauce pan. Heat until all the cheese melt and mix well, about 8-10 minutes on medium heat. Turn off the heat, mix in lemon zest. Transfer the mixture into a baking dish, sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese and broil for about 3-5 minutes, until you see small brown bubbling specks on top.
- You can make the Spinach Artichoke Dip 3-4 days of baking. Mix the ingredients and refrigerate it in an air-tight glass container.
- You can make garlic rolls with Whole wheat flour. But if you need the pillowy soft rolls, use only all-purpose flour.
- Ensure the milk used to activate the yeast is lukewarm. The ideal temperature of the liquid to active dry yeast is 105F to115F. Keep the temperature of the milk in this range.
Ingredients
FOR GARLIC ROLLS:
Luke-Warm Milk – 3 cups
Active Dry Yeast – 1 1/2 tablespoons
Sugar – 4 tablespoons
Unbleached All-Purpose Flour – 6 cups
Flavorless Oil – 6 tablespoons + for greasing
Salt – 1 ½ tablespoons
Milk, at room temperature – ¼ cup for milk wash
FOR GARLIC BUTTER:
Butter, softened – 2 sticks (1 cup)
Garlic Cloves – 12
Freshly Ground Black Pepper – 4 teaspoons
Fresh Cilantro – 20 springs
Red Chili Flakes – 4 teaspoons
Salt – 1 tablespoon (adjust as per taste)
FOR SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP:
Spinach – 1 bunch
Artichoke – 14 oz (1 tin)
Scallions – 3
Cream Cheese – 8 oz (1 slab), at room temperature
Sour Cream – 1 cup
Ricotta Cheese – ¼ cup
Parmesan Cheese (Parmigiano – Reggiano) – 2/3 cup
Mozzarella Cheese – 1 cup
Garlic – 4 large cloves
Black Pepper Powder, freshly ground – 1 teaspoon
Lemon Zest – of 1 full lemon
Salt – 2 teaspoons (adjust to taste)
Instructions
PREPARING GARLIC ROLLS:
- In a large bowl, take lukewarm milk, yeast and sugar. Whisk well and set aside for 5 minutes until the mixture rises turning frothy.
- Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, take all-purpose flour.
- Add oil and salt. Mix well. The flour will turn slightly crumbly.
- Pour the yeast mixture to mixing bowl containing flour. Knead it into a soft dough. The dough must be a slightly sticky and not rubbery. Depending on the quality of the flour, you might need to add 1-2 tablespoons of milk to get the dough soft and sticky. Add 1 tsp a time.
- Now dust your kitchen platform with some flour and thoroughly knead the dough for 8-10 minutes until the dough feels soft and light. Turn the dough into a big smooth ball.
- Smear oil all over the dough ball and place it in a well greased bowl.
- Cover the dough with a cling film to keep the moisture trapped within. Set it aside for 1 hour or until the dough to rises to double the volume.
- Meanwhile, to prepare garlic butter, mince garlic cloves.
- Take butter in a small bowl.
- Whisk the butter, peppercorns and salt well until it is soft and creamy.
- Mix in minced garlic, finely chopped coriander leaves and red chili flakes. Mix thoroughly. Keep this garlic butter aside.
- Grease two 12” skillets or deep baking dishes, preferably round shaped. Set aside.
- Once the dough has doubled, remove the cling film and knead the dough again for 1 minute
- Divide the dough into 8 equal portions.
- Roll a portion into a ball, dust the kitchen platform with some all-purpose flour.
- Using a rolling pin roll the ball into a 1/2 cm thick roll-out.
- Divide the prepared garlic butter into 6 equal portions.
- Evenly spread a portion of the prepared spread on the rolled-out dough.
- From one end, tightly roll the rolled-out dough to the other end.
- Halve the rolled dough.
- Cut each half into 2 pieces to get 4 pieces from each roll. Repeat steps 14-20 for the remaining dough.
- Place a 6” bowl inverted each in the center of the greased skillets.
- Place 1prepared rolls around the 6” inch bowl in each skillet so that each roll is equally placed from the other such that in second proofing they touch each other.
- Cover the two skillets and let the rolls proof for the second time. Place the skillets in a warm place for about 30-45 minutes.
PREPARING SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP:
- Blanch spinach in boiling water. Drain the hot water out and immerse the leaves in chilled water. Drain out all the water and squeeze the leaves until no water drips out of it. Chop them, keep aside. If you are using frozen spinach, defrost the leaves and squeeze them dry. It is important to remove any water from the leaves, if not, the water will ruin the consistency of the dip making it runny.
- Mince garlic.
- Thinly slice the scallions
- Chop artichoke. You may use fresh artichoke if you would like.
- In a sauce pan, take cream cheese, sour cream, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Heat on low-medium flame until all the cheese melts. Turn off the heat.
- Add minced garlic, freshly ground black pepper, lemon zest and salt. Mix well
- Fold in chopped artichoke, sliced scallions and spinach. Mix until well combined.
BAKING GARLIC ROLLS WITH THE DIP:
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Smear some milk on the proved rolls. This is called milk-wash; to get that golden brown color.
- Remove the 6” inch bowls from the center of the skillets and pour the prepared Spinach Artichoke mixture in place of the bowl. Divide the dip mixture equally between 2 skillets.
- Place the skillets in the oven and bake for nearly 20mins until the rolls turn golden. Typically, Spinach Artichoke Dip is broiled for a few minutes to get small brown specks on top. But since we are baking it along with garlic rolls, we do not want the rolls to be charred on broiling. Hence just bake them together.
- Serve the hot garlic rolls with Spinach Artichoke Dip. Enjoy!