Recipes, guides and kitchen know-how. Mostly useful, occasionally silly.
Garlic Bread Recipe - Crunchy Outside, Squidgy Middle, Breath Like a Dragon
A baguette sliced almost through, stuffed with soft butter, fresh garlic and parsley, baked in foil then uncovered until crisp. Plus a cheesy one, an air fryer one and a pizza one the kids fight over.
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- Prep15 min
- Cook15-25 min
- Serves6
- Calories~310
Calories are approximate, per serving, worked out from the ingredients. Brands and portion sizes vary.
There are two kinds of people in this world. People who love garlic bread, and people who haven't had it yet.
This is my garlic bread recipe: a crunchy top, a squidgy, buttery middle, and enough garlic to keep the neighbours at a respectful distance.
No frozen baguette with suspicious green flecks. A proper loaf, soft butter, fresh garlic, foil, and a hot oven. That's the whole secret.
Well, that and not letting Tyson anywhere near the worktop. He's a Doberman puppy. He has a criminal record for baguettes.
I went through a pile of versions, from Felicity Cloake's Guardian masterclass to UK home cooks and people who test recipes for a living, kept what they all agree on and pinched the clever bits. One of the clever bits involves chopsticks. Stay with me.
There's a cheesy version, an air fryer version and a pizza version further down. Erin has already issued a royal decree on which one she's having. It's all three.
Now showing
Short on time? Here's the whole thing in 44 seconds. Less time than the oven takes to heat up. Much less.
Starring Oliver and the frozen packet, Isaac's chopsticks, Aaron's thermometer and Erin's royal inspection. Tyson gets the end. Again.
Garlic bread? In Britain?
Here's the twist. Garlic bread isn't really Italian.
It's Italian-American. Italian food writers at Dissapore call it the dish that does Italian-American cooking the most credit, and point out the big difference from bruschetta: it's made with butter, not olive oil.
Italian families in America swapped in butter because that's what they could get. The rest of us have been grateful ever since. Loaf at first sight.
By the time Peter Kay built a famous stand-up routine around it being "the future", it had well and truly arrived over here.
He was right. Aaron is from Belfast. He'd like it known that the potato isn't Italian either. Nobody said it was.
Now the supermarkets churn out garlic baguettes by the million. They're fine. But homemade garlic bread takes fifteen minutes of actual work and tastes like it's been to finishing school.
What you need
For the loaf (serves 6)
- 1 large baguette (about 400g) or a ciabatta. A day old is perfect - slightly stale bread soaks up more butter and holds its shape. Finally, a use for yesterday's bread that isn't feeding ducks.
- 100g salted butter, soft enough to dent with a finger. Unsalted is fine with a pinch of salt.
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled. Fresh. Not the jar. The jar knows what it did.
- A small handful of flat-leaf parsley (about 15g), finely chopped. Chives work too.
- A squeeze of lemon juice and a few twists of black pepper. The lemon sharpens everything up without tasting of lemon.
Already made a log of my five-minute herby butter? About two thirds of it does one loaf. Past you has done present you a favour. Enjoy it. It doesn't happen often.
For the cheesy one (and the pizza one)
Optional. In the same way breathing is optional. Isaac's view, not mine. Well. Also mine.
- 40g finely grated parmesan, beaten into the butter. Parmesan isn't vegetarian, so use a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters at your table.
- 100g grated mozzarella for the top. The stretchy one. Mild cheddar works if that's what's in the fridge.
- For the pizza version: one pizza dough ball (shop-bought, or 150g strong white flour, half a teaspoon each of fast-action yeast, salt and sugar, 10ml olive oil and 90ml warm water).
- A pinch of chilli flakes. Lara puts these on everything. She orders her curry hotter than mine. I've stopped mentioning it.
Kit
- A garlic press. Ours crushes a clove straight into the bowl and comes with a free green silicone tube that peels it for you. No press? Use the finest side of a grater, or the flat of a big knife with a pinch of salt.
- A serrated bread knife and a board
- Two chopsticks or wooden spoon handles. The secret weapon. All will be revealed.
- A mixing bowl and a fork or wooden spoon
- Kitchen foil and a baking tray
How to make garlic bread
Step 1 - Slice the loaf, but not all the way
- Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan), gas 7.
- Lay the loaf on a board with a chopstick along each side.
- Cut deep slices about 2cm apart. The knife hits the chopsticks and stops, so the bottom crust stays joined up.
Cut all the way through and you've made a pile of buttery croutons and a mess. Ask me how I know. Actually, don't.
Step 2 - Make the herb butter
- Put the soft butter in a bowl and beat it with a fork until it's smooth. A damp tea towel under the bowl stops it wandering off.
- Crush the garlic straight in with the press, then scrape the bits off the bottom of the press. That's the good stuff. Don't waste it on the washing up.
- Stir in the parsley, the lemon, the pepper and the parmesan if you're going cheesy.
It should taste loud. Raw garlic mellows a lot in the oven, so what tastes slightly too much now will be spot on later. For more ways to deal with a clove, here's knife, grater or press, all three explained.
Step 3 - Butter every gap
- Sit the loaf on a big sheet of foil.
- Spread the butter into every cut with a knife or your fingers. Go gently so you don't tear the slices.
- Smear whatever's left over the top. There's no such thing as leftover butter. Only butter that hasn't found its loaf yet.
Soft butter, deep cuts, foil on, then foil off. Every good version agrees: the foil steams the inside soft and buttery, then a few minutes uncovered crisps the top. Skip the foil and you get toast. Skip the uncovered bit and you get a hot sponge. Neither is garlic bread. Both are a cry for help.
Step 4 - Wrap, bake, unwrap
- Wrap the loaf loosely in the foil and put it on a baking tray.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes for a baguette, or about 20 for a fatter ciabatta.
- Open the foil and bake for another 5 minutes until the top is golden and crisp. Watch it - stale bread browns faster.
- Tip any melted butter in the foil back over the top, pull it apart and serve hot. The end piece goes to whoever's wearing a tiara. Those are the rules.
Cheesy garlic bread
Same method, two changes. Beat the parmesan into the butter at step 2, then scatter the mozzarella over the top when you open the foil.
Give it the full 5 minutes uncovered, or a minute or two longer, until it's bubbling and spotted gold. Grate expectations. Delivered.
It's what I put next to a big tray of slow-cooked lasagne. Carbs on carbs. I played word association with Ayden over that exact dinner. He said "lasagne". I said "garlic bread". He said that's two words. I said that's two points. Still undefeated.
Air fryer garlic bread
No need to heat the whole oven for one loaf.
- Heat the air fryer to 180C.
- Make the loaf exactly the same way. Cut the baguette in half if it won't fit, and wrap each half in its own foil.
- Cook wrapped for 6-7 minutes, then open the foil and give it 2-3 minutes more until crisp.
Air fryers vary a lot, so check it a minute early the first time. Just air the side of caution.
Garlic bread pizza
The takeaway favourite, made at home. Kids go feral for it.
- Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan), gas 7, with a baking tray inside.
- Making your own dough? Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar, add the oil and warm water, knead for about 8 minutes until smooth, then cover and leave somewhere warm for about an hour until doubled.
- Roll it out into a thin round. A rolling pin that does the measuring for you keeps it the same thickness all over, so there's no soggy middle and burnt edge.
- Spread the herb butter over the base, leaving a 2.5cm border bare so the crust puffs up. Add mozzarella if you like.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and crisp. Cut into wedges.
Lara put jalapeños on hers. Ayden says that's cheating. Lara says she's a jalapeño, so technically it's a self-portrait.
Make it ahead, freeze it, and leftovers
Make it ahead: butter and wrap the loaf, then keep it in the fridge for up to a day. Raw garlic and butter belong in the fridge, not on the side.
Freeze it: wrap it well in foil and freeze for up to a month. Bake from frozen, still wrapped, and add 5-10 minutes. This is also how you avoid garlic fingers when guests are due. Freezer, the night before. Hands of an angel.
Label it. The Food Standards Agency's guide on how to chill, freeze and defrost food safely warns you'll otherwise end up with "Unidentified Frozen Objects". Aaron has laminated his labels. Of course he has.
Leftovers: let them cool, get them in the fridge within a couple of hours, eat within two days, and reheat in the oven until hot right through. Leftover garlic bread. I've heard of it. Never seen it.
It's also the only sensible way to mop up the juices from a pot of chicken with forty cloves in it. Garlic, with a side of garlic. Bold. Correct.
Herb butter left over and a box of mushrooms in the fridge? That's a twelve-minute pan of creamy mushrooms sorted. Erin will want first go. Erin always wants first go.
If it goes wrong
Soggy and greasy? Too much melted butter, or it never came out of the foil.
Fix: use soft butter, not melted, and always give it the last 5 minutes uncovered. It needs a bit of fresh air. Don't we all.
Burnt top, cold middle? The oven's too hot or the foil came off too early.
Fix: keep it wrapped for the full time, then unwrap and stay by the oven. Five minutes goes quickly when you're scrolling. Put the phone down. The garlic bread needs you.
Fell apart into slices? You cut all the way through.
Fix: chopsticks either side next time. This time, call it "rustic tear-and-share" and serve it in a bowl. Nobody will know. Erin will know.
Butter tearing the bread? The butter's too cold and hard.
Fix: leave it out for an hour first, or chop it small so it softens faster. Soft butter, soft life.
Garlic tastes harsh? Big raw chunks, or a green shoot left in the clove.
Fix: crush it to a paste with the press and pull out any green shoot first - it's bitter. A clove encounter you won't regret.
Still frozen in the middle? It went in straight from the freezer for the normal time.
Fix: add 5-10 minutes, still wrapped, and check the middle is hot before you unwrap. Patience. It's been in the freezer a month. It can wait ten minutes.
That's it. A proper loaf, soft butter, real garlic, foil on, foil off.
And if anyone asks who ate the end piece before it reached the table, it was Tyson. It's always Tyson. Dexter was standing right next to him, looking innocent. He's very good at that.
Now go and cook something. Something with a lot of garlic. You know what to do.
