Cheesy Garlic Bread

Why This Recipe Works: Garlic bread is a balancing act between the butter, garlic, and bread. Add cheese to the mix and things get complicated. We wanted cheese-topped garlic bread that was crisp on the outside but chewy within, buttery all the way through, and with no bitter garlic aftertaste.

Supermarket baguettes already have a chewy interior and crisp crust, so we started there. Grating the garlic cloves made for a smoother butter, and to tone down the garlic’s harshness we sautéed it in butter with a little water (to prevent burning). We mixed the garlic into more softened butter, spread it on our split baguette, and wrapped the bread in foil. Baking it this way “steams” the bread and infuses it with garlic-butter flavor. To crisp the crust, we took the bread out of the foil and baked it a little longer. The final adornment was the cheese; rather than shredding several different kinds ourselves, we took a shortcut and used a prepackaged mixture of shredded Italian cheeses. The last step was to run it under the broiler, which gave us both melted cheese and an extra-crisp crust.

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Preheat: 400°Yield: 6-8 servings
Prep: 0:15Wait: 0:00Cook: 0:30

Ingredients

  • 5 garlic cloves, grated
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
  • 1/2 teaspoon water
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 baguette, sliced in half horizontally (18- to 20-inch)
  • 1 1/2 cups cheese (shredded Italian blend)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Move rack to the 2nd from bottom space.
  2. Saute garlic, 1 tablespoon butter, and water over low heat, 7 to 10 minutes. It forms a paste.
  3. Combine hot garlic, 7 tablespoons butter, salt, and pepper in a bowl and spread on both halves of the bread. Put the halves back together and wrap in foil. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
  4. Unwrap bread and place halves, buttered sides up, on baking sheet. Bake until it begins to color, about 10 minutes. Take out of oven and turn on the broiler.
  5. Sprinkle bread with cheese. Place under the broiler until cheese has melted and bread is crispy, about 1 or 2 minutes. Put on cutting board, cheesy side down. Cut into pieces. Serve.

Notes

  • The serrated edges on a bread knife can pull off the cheesy crust. To prevent this, place the finished garlic bread cheese side down on a cutting board. Slicing through the crust (rather than the cheese) first will keep the cheese in place.
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recipes/cheesy_garlic_bread.txt · Last modified: 2017/01/03 21:21 by jmarcos
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