Garlic Bread Recipe

Garlic bread makes a great accompaniment to lasagne, spaghetti bolognese, carbonara, pizza and risotto. It can also be a good way to use up French bread or ciabatta as for some reason it seems to work best with day-old bread!

There are many ways of making garlic bread, so feel free to experiment. I tend to make the garlic butter first and then spread it on the bread before cutting it. Last time I made it I accidentally melted the butter when I was trying to soften it and surprisingly that worked really well.

You can make garlic butter as simple or as elaborate as you like. I tend to use real. salted butter for my garlic bread as I prefer the flavour, but you can use a dairy-free spread or a margarine if you prefer.

If you have time you can make the garlic bread super tasty by roasting a bulb of garlic in its skin (I tend to do this when something else is in the oven) Roasted garlic that has been roasted with the skin still on turns unctious and sweet, with a mellow, more rounded and less bitey flavour. If you use that in place of the grated or crushed raw garlic, the garlic bread will take on a much deeper but slightly sweeter flavour.

Ingredients for Garlic Bread

You will need:

• 1 large baguette or ciabatta
• 3-4 cloves of raw garlic, either peeled and crushed or peeled and finely grated
• Salted butter, or dairy-free margarine or spread
• A little dried parsley or oregano or both
• A sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper to taste.
• Optional: Grated mature cheddar cheese and /or parmesan cheese to taste
• Optional: a tiny sprinkling of chilli flakes to taste.

Method for Garlic Bread

Firstly, let’s make the garlic butter.

In a bowl, add the softened (or melted!) butter and the crushed or grated (or roasted) garlic and parsley or oregano to taste and mix well. Add a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and mix well.

Let’s cut the bread in half length ways. Using a palette knife or big knife (or the back of a dessert spoon) spread the garlic butter on the bread.

Cut into smaller chunks if you wish

Preheat your oven to 180oc , 160 oc Fan or Gas mark 6

Place the garlic bread on a baking tray and bake until golden and bubbling and cooked all the way through.

Serve with bolognese, or lasagne or pizza or a glass of wine and enjoy!

 Cooking tip: if your bread is very stale, try rinsing it under the cold tap for a few seconds then cook as normal, usually it fluffs it up and becomes fresh again. Obviously if you can see mould growing on it,  don’t do this. But if it has gone hard and tired looking, this is a great way of revitalising it! 

 Other Recipes you might enjoy:

https://www.mamacoopskitchen.co.uk/chicken-and-green-pesto-pasta-recipe/ 

https://www.mamacoopskitchen.co.uk/arrabbiata-sauce-recipe/ 

 Check out my pinterest boards https://www.pinterest.com/mamacoopskitchenuk