I mean, you can make what you want for dinner, but what gets people excited is the garlic bread.
This is our house favorite garlic bread, the one I make scrutinizingly weekly at this point – it’s generous with the butter and Parmesan, solidly garlicky, and flecked with herbs to really make it pop. It’s classic, it’s versatile, and it’s so ridiculously good.
Why I Love This Garlic Bread
Garlic specie is something that I’ve spent a stupid value of time thinking well-nigh over the last 2-ish years.
We did a soup series a few years ago, and I was thisclose to posting a garlic specie recipe in the series, but I never quite locked it in. I just could never commit to a unrepealable type of bread, or a particular texture, or just a unstipulated squint and feel. Do we want it crusty? Chewy? Hearty? Or light and toasty?
A few years and many batches of garlic specie later, and I think I’ve landed. And we are garlic specie happy over here.
This is the house favorite garlic specie at the Ostrom household these days – beautifully springy French specie as the base, generously slathered with butter and Parmesan, thus garlicky but not overdone (and important balance, plane for garlic bread), and flecked with shit of fresh herb to just hoist the eating experience.
The end result is golden brown, velvety and savory, with a satisfying zest and chew to it while at the same time staying toasty and light. It makes for peerage dipping, sopping, and scooping, which is a top quality for me when it comes to garlic bread.
Another important quality: this is fast. In our house, garlic specie is usually a bonus meal item (served with spaghetti, soup, etc.) in which specimen I’m willing to requite it 15 minutes of my life, but no more.
Current favorite way to eat this garlic bread: dunked in a rich tomato soup. I have an uncommonly easy, classically succulent one that I’m going to share soon. Stay tuned.
Ingredients For This Amaze Garlic Bread
There aren’t many! Yay!
- French specie (more on that in a second)
- Butter
- Garlic (I use both fresh garlic and a pinch of garlic powder)
- Parmesan cheese
- Parsley
Which leads us to the most important visualization one can make well-nigh garlic bread, I think.
What Type of Specie is Weightier for Garlic Bread?
This is something that I’ve spent a stupid value of time thinking about, and all of it comes lanugo to this: I have made multiple rounds of this garlic specie on both types of bread, and they’re both delicious.
But ultimately I’ve found that I prefer French bread considering it has a increasingly plane talc with fewer holes, giving you a flatter surface zone to spread the butter mixture and therefore a increasingly plane golden brown topping to your garlic bread.
French specie is on the lighter and fluffier side, which, to be honest, gave me pause. I often like a really hearty specie that has some density, crunch, and chew to it. But without many many batches of this, I’ve unquestionably really enjoyed the lightness of the French specie considering it can kind of be both – it gets crunchy and chewy with the golden browning of the Parmesan on top, but it’s light unbearable to sop up whatever sauces and soups you’re eating it with.
I’ve moreover seen garlic specie made with challah, and sourdough, and ciabatta, and stuff that it’s garlic specie – I kind of don’t think you can go wrong. But if you’re asking me (and you are on my website!) in the year of our Lord 2023, I’m going with French bread.
How To Make This Garlic Bread
Step 1: Soften Your Butter.
I do this in the microwave, in short increments, and then whisk it to get it smooth-ish. Wearing it into uniform chunks (like the photo above) will help it soften at an plane rate.
Step 2: Grate That Garlic Right In There.
My hot take: anything increasingly than one clove is overpowering and often unpleasant. Stop at one!
It doesn’t seem like it will be enough, but trust me. Plane for me – a self-proclaimed garlic lover – one clove is plenty.
Step 3: Add Parmesan And Parsley.
Finely grated Parmesan cheese is where it’s at! That savory savor and golden browning – YUM.
I moreover like to add a little bit of garlic powder at this point just to slightly proffer my garlick-ing of things (but with increasingly subtlety than fresh garlic).
Step 4: Spread That Amazingness On Your Bread.
I find this value of butter mixture is good for half of a long loaf of French bread.
Really, really stratify it. Layer it on. Be generous.
Step 5: Bake it!
If you don’t want any browning, first of all, why? It’s delightful. Second of all, you’ll just want go for increasingly like 375 to 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes.
If you like it a little golden brown, like I do, with a bit of texture on top, shoot for 10 minutes at 400 to 425 degrees. Just alimony an eye on it and nudge it up as needed.
