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Homemade garlic bread is hands-down the best. You can make it as garlicky and buttery as you like, and even throw on somes extras if you like.
Some of my favorite variations include:
- Adding mozzarella for some stretchy cheese goodness.
- Topping the cooked garlic bread with some chopped ripe tomatoes – for a delicious bruschetta feel.
- Replacing the parsley with chopped cilantro or a mixture of both (this works great served with spicy chicken or a Thai curry).
I recommend making the dough for this recipe in a food mixer with a dough hook. The dough is very sticky, which makes it hard to knead by hand. It firms up a little during proving (just one proving stage needed), and at that point you can coat it in some flour to make it easier to work with.
I also love to dust the raw pizzas with fine semolina before topping with the garlic butter. This give the finished bread a delicious crispier coating. However, you can just dust with a little more flour if you don’t have any semolina.
BREAD INGREDIENTS
- 325 ml lukewarm water
- 1 1/2 tsp dried instant yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 400 g strong white bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp fine ground semolina flour (replace with bread flour if preferred)
GARLIC TOPPING INGREDIENTS
- 5 tbsp salted butter, very soft
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 packed cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
DIRECTIONS
- Place the lukewarm water in a jug or bowl and stir in the yeast and sugar. Leave for 5 minutes until it foams on top.
- Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir together using the dough hook, then slowly pour in the yeast mixture whilst the mixer is running at a medium speed.
- Continue to knead with the dough hook for a further 10 minutes, then scrape the mixture into a large oiled bowl (it will be sticky). Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm room for 45-60 minutes until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 400f. Place two large metal baking trays in the oven to heat up.
- Once the dough has risen, scrape it out onto a well-floured surface. Split the dough into two portions and lightly knead to knock out the air. Form the dough into two balls and let them rest for 5 minutes (you can leave for up to 15 minutes, but cover with plastic wrap if leaving for longer than 5 minutes).
- Mix together the garlic topping ingredients in a small bowl.
- After 5 minutes, dust both of the dough balls well with semolina and stretch out to form a rough pizza shape.
- Take the hot trays out of the oven and spray or brush with a little oil.
- Place one pizza on each tray (I fold the dough over my arm to move it). Don’t worry if it wrinkles and looks a bit messy on the tray, it will smooth out during cooking. Stretch out a little more once on the tray if needed.
- Spoon the garlic butter onto the pizza breads and use the back of a spoon or a brush to smooth the butter all over – right up to the edges.
- Place in the oven and cook for 7-10 minutes until golden brown.
- Serve immediately.
