Sharp garlic pairs up with fresh herbs, crushed red pepper, and scads of butter to make the best and easiest garlic bread you’ll ever bring with you to a Memorial Day Party.
Sharp garlic pairs up with fresh herbs, crushed red pepper, and scads of butter to make the best and easiest garlic bread you’ll ever bring with you to a Memorial Day Party.
You know the old meme that goes something along the lines of “if they don’t like BLANK don’t be friends, you don’t need that kind of negativity”? It’s definitely overused at this point, but it’s honestly how I feel about garlic bread. If you don’t like garlic bread, I honestly don’t see how we can be friends. I basically radiate garlic at all times, so I need the people in my life to do the same so that I don’t feel self-conscious.
Garlic bread is among a list of foods that I always used to buy pre-made varieties of until discovering how bonkers easy it is to make them yourself, and now I don’t understand why anyone buys frozen garlic bread when it SO MUCH BETTER to make your own.
There is slightly more work involved, sure, but the results are so stunning that it’s totally worth it.
Ingredients needed to make amazing Rosemary Thyme Garlic Bread:
Bread: you’ll need about 8 ounces of bread altogether. I generally make this recipe with half of a 1- pound loaf of bread. You can do one large Italian or French loaf, or you could use two rolls. The bread you use is totally up to you, but you want about a half a pound total.
Unsalted Butter: butter is one of the main components of this dish, so use the best butter you can afford. I almost always use unsalted butter so that I can control the amount of salt in a dish, but salted butter will work here too.
Herbs: I used Thyme and Rosemary here because they’re my favorites, but you can use any herbs you want.
Crushed Red Pepper: totally optional, but delicious if you like things a little spicier.
Garlic: I mean, it’s garlic bread. I use this garlic press – it’s pricey, but amazing.
Tips for making the best Rosemary Thyme Garlic Bread
Start by making sure your butter is very, very soft - I will generally set it out in the morning in order to make the bread at dinner time. 3 hours minimum at room temperature is best, but you can also soften it by putting in the microwave for 5 second intervals until softened, but not melted. If you’re going to go the microwave method, I recommend cutting the butter into tablespoons and laying them out on a plate to be microwaved. You’ll get a much more even softening that way.
Use Fresh Herbs – you can use dried if fresh aren’t easy to come by for you, but the flavor of the bread is out of this world when using fresh herbs.
Use more garlic than you think you’ll need – again – it’s garlic bread. You want to be able to taste the garlic.
Baking sheet – I use a Non Stick Gold Touch pan from Williams Sonoma for this bread. Because the bread is going to be cut side down on the pan for part of its baking, I want to make sure it wont stick to the surface. You can get knock offs of this pan at Home Goods or other stores for much less money. Or you can line the tray with foil and spray it with a little bit of non-stick spray. You might not get quite as much browning, but it will still work.
Reheating: you can reheat any leftovers by wrapping them in foil, and placing the foil packet in a 425 degree oven for 5-10 minutes. It wont be quite as crispy as when it was originally made, but it’s still delicious.
To make Rosemary Thyme Garlic Bread
Start by softening the butter as described under the tips section.
Once you have the soft butter, place it in a small bowl and add the chopped herbs and garlic, and mash it around with a spoon to incorporate the mix-ins. Once the butter mixture is fully mixed (poor phrasing there, I apologize) I then place the bowl in the microwave for 5 seconds to make sure it’s as spreadable as possible. Using a knife, spread the butter mixture evenly over the surface of the bread.
Once the bread is ready, place it butter side up on a non-stick baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes have passed, remove the tray from the oven, and flip the bread over so that the buttered side is directly in contact with the tray as described in the tips section. Place back in the oven for 7-10 minutes checking after 7 minutes to make sure the butter isn’t burning.
Remove from the oven, and cut into pieces as desired.
1 loaf
Sara Rauckhorst
5 Min
20 Min
8 Hour
8 H & 25 M
Rosemary Thyme Garlic Bread
Ingredients
- 8 ounces of bread (half of a 1 pound loaf or 2 smaller loaves totalling 8 ounces)
- ¼ cup butter (4 tablespoons), softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
- 3 large or 4-5 small cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400.
- Mix together the softened butter, fresh herbs, red pepper if using, and garlic in a small bowl.
- Spread the butter mixture evenly over the cut side of the bread.
- Place bread buttered side up on a non-stick cookie sheet, or line a cookie sheet with foil and spray the foil with non-stick spray.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then remove, and flip the bread over so that the buttered side is making direct contact with the baking sheet. Place back in the oven for 7-10 minutes, checking after 7 to make sure the butter isn't burning.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes, then slice.
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