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Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram A few minutes later we hear more bouncy ball noises from the living room. I race over to the mayhem and say “Edison! You can’t throw the bouncy ball!” And he looks back at me so calmly, as if he’s explaining something to an idiot: “But you didn’t see me.” Agh! He got me you guys!! Rookie parenting move, who even am I?? There is just nothing better than fresh garlic bread. I’m actually pretty sure God was talking about garlic bread specifically when he mentioned the staff of life. I made probably about 15 loaves of garlic bread testing for this post, and my freezer is full of reject bread to prove it. Edison likes to punish me when I serve him overly-crusty garlic bread. He eats the one bite from the center that is buttery and soft, and then methodically crushes the too-hard edge into smithereens that he sprinkles about under his chair. My shrieks of indignation after each meal are worth every ounce of effort to him, no doubt. I’m here to make sure this never happens to you. Here are all my best tips that will deliver garlic bread that is pleasantly soft and chewy in the center, yet shatteringly crispy on the edges (if you want–I also include instructions for soft garlic bread.) It is perfectly buttery in every bite. And I’ll show you how to make it without it getting dried out. French bread is the most traditional. I like to use the “Country French Bread” from Costco, it is amazing. (That’s what you see in the photos.) A French loaf from the grocery store will do too! But don’t limit yourself, you can make garlic bread out of anything (not cardboard, I was kidding):
Homemade French Bread (only takes one hour to make!) Sourdough bread Ciabatta loaves Focaccia Sesame seed loaf Texas toast
These are just ideas. You can use any kind of bread you want! The higher quality it is, the better your garlic bread will be! We are going to use 3/4 cup butter for one loaf of bread, that’s 1 and 1/2 sticks. There is no secret ingredient in this recipe, the secret is just MORE BUTTER. Most recipes call for one stick of butter for a loaf, and it’s just not enough to make it the best garlic bread. Yolo, man. The reason I like to use more butter is because as the bread bakes, the butter seeps down through the bread. You are not just getting bread with butter on the top. You really are getting butter top-to-bottom. Mince your garlic pretty fine. I like to use about 5-6 cloves, or about 3 tablespoons per loaf of bread. But you can use less than that if you want! I’m kind of a garlic freak. Go big or go home.
Crispy-edge, pillow-y center garlic bread Soft and tender edge garlic bread Fast and easy garlic bread
Garlic bread success is all down to technique. So choose which kind you want to try and go for it! Pictures are here; full recipe is below.
First cut your bread in half this way:
Slap that garlic butter on the bread.
Not just on the top though, oh no. Take your inappropriate amount of butter and get the edges too, like so.
Do you see that sad sorry dried out spot? Don’t be like that. Give it some butterlove. You have to butter every single nook and cranny of this bread. We want super crunchy crispy craggy edges, and butter is how we get there.
I still remember a conversation between my brother and our cousin Tony when we were all pretty young kids. Tony was saying that no one knows how to make PB&J’s the right way except him. “People are always just slapping the peanut butter in the middle. You have to carefully spread to the very edge. My mom never gets it right.”
I’m trying to imagine how fast my eyes would pop out of my head if my ingrate 10-year-old complained about the way I made his sandwiches…but in this case, I have to say, you are very disrespectful, Tony, but you are also very right. SPREAD TO THE VERY EDGE Y’ALL. It matters.
(PS, Tony’s mom is Shirley, as in Aunt Shirley, the same blessed Shirley who gave us these Creamy Mashed Potatoes and the Famous Dinner Rolls. So I think we can forgive her if she didn’t spend more than about 5 seconds per sandwich as she tossed them out to her 6 children.)
She’s all ready for the oven.
Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, right on the pan, no foil. This is where the magic happens and the butter seeps throughout the bread. After 10 minutes, crank up the heat to broil and move the oven rack up to the top. Broil for 1-2 minutes (don’t walk away!) until the top is as crispy as you like it.
Spread the garlic butter on one side of each slice of bread (I actually tried buttering both sides of each slice of bread; it was too much, which is saying something because I tend to be that person who’s like LET’S DO MORE.)
Lay out a large sheet of foil and arrange your sliced and buttered bread back into its loaf shape; each slice should be upright. If you have any extra butter, spread it right on top of the reshaped loaf.
Place another sheet of foil over the top of the bread
Press the foil together and then fold it up to seal, like so:
Bake on a sheet pan at 350 for about 15 minutes, until the butter is melted.
This bread is quite soft and buttery, so if you want to crisp it up just a tiny bit, unwrap the top of the foil toward the last couple minutes of cook time. Serve hot!
Cut the bread on a bias into 1-inch slices. Add in a single layer to a sheet pan. Spread the top of each slice with the softened garlic butter. Bake at a higher temperature, 475. This will melt the butter and get them get them nice and toasty really quickly.
That’s it! It gets the job done quick!
Cheesy garlic bread is the only way to make garlic bread even better than it already is.
I love the flavor of Parmesan but it doesn’t melt well. So hide it under a layer of mozzarella and you get the flavor without the weird crackly parmesan melt. Or skip the parm altogether and just use mozzarella, up to you.
For Crispy Garlic Bread, add the cheese right before broiling. Broil for 1-3 minutes until the cheese starts to brown. Something like this:
For Soft Garlic Bread, mix grated parmesan into the garlic butter before spreading on the bread. If you want EXTRA cheesy bread, add a slice of mozzarella cheese in between each slice of bread, wrap in foil, and bake as directed.
This is like, ULTRA cheesy, so prepare yourself.
For Fast Garlic Bread, sprinkle the cheese on each slice before baking at 475.
If you are going for crispy-edge garlic bread, you need 10 minutes to heat it through, then 1-2 minutes under the broiler. If you want soft garlic bread, wrap it in foil; it will take about 15 minutes to get all the butter inside melted. If you want lightning fast garlic bread, slice the bread before baking, spread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet, top each slice with the garlic butter mixture, and bake at 425 for about 3-5 minutes until toasted.
You can tell a garlic powder is high quality by how it looks. The kind at Costco that I buy is actually called “granulated garlic” and you can indeed see little granules. It should be golden yellow. If it looks like a bottle of white chalk dust, don’t you dare.
Easy Spaghetti Sauce Recipe (30 minutes) » Easy Spaghetti, easy garlic bread, and Caesar salad is a total staple around our house! This Bolognese Sauce will Knock Your Socks Off » The heartier, more depth of flavor version of spaghetti sauce and SO worth it if you want to knock someone’s socks off. Killer Homemade Lasagna Recipe » Sop up all that extra sauce with your garlic bread. YUM. Best Chicken Alfredo Recipe » Garlic bread with Chicken Alfredo is like peas & carrots or pb & j. Minestrone with Sausage and Pesto (Stovetop or Slow Cooker) » Such a delicious, hearty soup. Pan Seared Sea Scallops with Sauce » Tender, buttery scallops in a creamy wine sauce would be perfect alongside some garlic bread. The Best Baked Ziti » This feeds a HUGE crowd and is all things cheesy goodness. Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff » Creamy noodles and chicken? Yes please! French Onion Soup » Flavors of the Kitchen
A large air fryer would also work (shorten the time by a few minutes). You can also toast one piece or two at a time (will make it toasty rather than soft in the middle). Use a microwave if you must; but your bread will become unpleasantly tough after just a short time. Don’t heat longer than 8-10 seconds. You can freeze a prepared and unbaked loaf, or an already baked loaf. Either way, make sure the bread is not warm and then place in a large freezer ziplock bag (I love these 2 gallon ziplocks) and try to seal it with as little air in the bag as possible. You can also double wrap with foil and then plastic wrap if you don’t have a big enough freezer bag. When you’re ready to eat, you can bake it straight from frozen at 350 for about 15-25 minutes. Be sure to remove any plastic before baking and only leave the foil on!
