For a truly religious Garlic Bread experience, skip the fancy bread and use a basic French baguette. The right salt-and-garlic ratio is key. And don’t even think about skimping on butter!
Garlic Bread
You can’t order pizza without a side of garlic bread. It would be like ordering a burger at Maccers with no fries. (Oh the sacrilege, talking about so much fast food in one post! 🙈)
And while some people dive straight for the biggest slice of pizza, I always – ALWAYS – go for the garlic bread first.
Who’s with me here??? 🙋🏻♀️
How to make garlic bread
There are many ways to make garlic bread, using all types of bread. But for me, the Pizza Hut / Dominos way will always be the best way: a baguette sliced almost all the way through, then each piece slathered with garlic butter, wrapped in foil and baked until toasty.
My garlic butter is made with 2 tsp freshly minced garlic, 1/2 tsp salt and 125g / 1 stick butter. The perfect garlic-salty balance!
Best bread for garlic bread
For a truly epic, classic Garlic Bread experience, my one firm rule I’ll never budge on is this:
NO FANCY BREAD ALLOWED
In my world, classic Garlic Bread should always be made with stock standard supermarket or basic bakery French stick / baguette. The crust isn’t that thick, and it’s usually pretty soft rather than crispy. Once slathered with butter and baked in foil, I find it yields the perfect ratio of crust crunch to soft, warm, garlic butter soaked bread.
On the other hand, a thick crust like you get with fancy artisan baguettes is no good – too much crispy crust compared to soft bread inside. Too hard to swallow!
Basic French stick is perfect. See? 😍
Fresh garlic is essential!
Bread aside, I only have one other rule: please use real garlic. As much as I will rip into Dominos and Pizza Hut garlic bread with enthusiasm, there’s no denying that it has an element of sourness to it which is probably due to using jarred garlic because that’s the main difference I notice between fresh and jarred garlic. From the preservatives, I expect.
Hence why homemade will always be so much better than Dominos. 🙂 Because the garlic is real and fresh!!
Homemade Garlic Bread.
Completely, utterly, ridiculously, insanely, can’t-stop-eating-it delicious.
Put a juicy, perfectly cooked steak and Garlic Bread in front of me, and I’d choose the Garlic Bread every time, any day and twice on Sunday.
These photos are killing me. Gotta stop looking at them! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Garlic Bread
Ingredients
- 1 French stick / baguette , ~ 60cm / 2ft long (Note 1)
- 125 g / 1 US stick unsalted butter , softened
- 2 tsp fresh garlic , very finely minced (~3 – 4 cloves, pack the teaspoon)
- 1/2 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
- 2 tsp finely chopped parsley (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C/390F.
- Cut the French stick in half. Then cut the bread almost all the way through into 2cm / 4/5″ thick slices.
- Mix together the butter, garlic, salt and parsley. Taste to see if it’s salty / garlicky enough for your taste (Note 2).
- Smear garlic butter over cut side of bread (Note 2).
- Smear remaining butter on the top and sides of the bread.
- Wrap each bread in foil.
- Bake for 15 minutes until the crust is crispy (check through foil).
- Unwrap and serve!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published March 2018. Updated with housekeeping matters April 2019 – no change to recipe.
Just a few things you could serve with garlic bread….
Spaghetti Bolognese, a slow cooked Shredded Beef Ragu or any other pasta
Dunk in soup – try Pumpkin Soup, Minestrone, Lentil Soup, Cauliflower Soup or Broccoli Cheese Soup
On the side of a big salad – make a meal of it!
A quick chicken main like juicy Baked Chicken Breast, Honey Garlic Chicken, Sticky Baked Thighs or Honey Mustard Baked Drumsticks
The “other” garlic bread
Here’s my “other” garlic bread that sends people into a tizzy – Cheese & Garlic Crack Bread! Aptly named as such because of how it’s cut and also because it’s said to be garlic bread…. on crack! A bit of fun, great for sharing and ridiculously addictive. Great party food. 🙂
Life of Dozer
Little souvenir from Tokyo. He’s not a fan. I think he prefers cotton to polyester. Yeah, that’s the problem. For sure. 🤣
PS I had a vision of making him wear this for every “Life of Dozer” photo for Asian recipes. That’s how I justified this “business cost”….. Poor, poor Dozer…..
Nagi, I plan on guilding the garlic lilly, so to speak…
My boyfriend LOVES cheesy garlic bread! So, when I make the gralic butter, I plan on adding a shredded cheese (some sort of cheddar blend) into the mix!
Never mind the pizza…you can just eat the cheesy garlic bread & dip it into a good marinara sauce!
Mom sometimes toasted stale hamburger buns with the garlic mixture into which she mixed some grated Parmesan cheese–or rather the whey derivative that passes for it in the big green containers in our supermarkets. (Gee, that stuff has been around for at least sixty years!) A confrere of mind used to sprout garlic and mince the green sprouts like chives and do something similar.
Ohhhhhh! I LOVE HEARING THAT!!! N xx
YES TO CHEESY GARLIC BREAD!!!!
OMG, Love anything garlic!!! This is absolutely wonderful!
Dozer is So Handsome!
Isn’t that kimono INSANE on him?!!!! I LOVE IT!!!
HiNagi
While I am a big fan of home made garlic bread,( yours sounds perfection!) it would never occur to me to eat it with pizza. Is it an Australian ‘thing’, which is why I’ve never heard of the combination here in the US?
Best regards, and thanks for your wonderful site.
Really!!! I’m so interested to hear that! Garlic bread with pizza is MASSIVE here in Australia it is the DONE THING!!
Garlic knots at every pizza place I go to in US…
I wondered that too! While pizza places here in the American Midwest do have options to order garlic breadsticks or knots I’ve never known anyone to actually order them. It seems like if people here get sides it’s chicken wings. I’m giving this bread a try tonight with the lentil soup recipe. It looks great!
Now, you stop that, Nagi! I am supposed to be cooking scrambled eggs with sausage and cheese, and here you go, posting G-AHHHHH-LIC bread!! And if that’s not enough, you have to ADD the G-AHHHHH-LIC CRACK bread! Oh, you are a BAD, BAD GIRL!! Hubby will be awake in a few minutes. He will want his BREAKFAST!! Good thing they sell baguettes down the street at the little market…I have Kerrygold butter…fresh garlic and parsley…just need the bread! He will grumble when I ask him to go to the shop…until I show him your photos, which are SINFUL at 6:40 AM!!
Dozer, you are such a good boy! Next thing you know, she’ll have you wearing a lei and a grass skirt! Poor baby. :’-(
BA HA HA!!! Listen, it was TORTURE for me writing up this post!!!
Like my mother used to make. I’m drooling at the thought of it.
LOVE LOVE LOVE HEARING THAT!!!
Konichiwa Dozer..so very handsome..oops forget to tell Nagi her bread recipe super good!! Wow didn’t think pizza Hut was in Australia 👍
Pizza Hut is pretty big over here!!