Kitchen notes · a little help before you start
Homemade Garlic Bread
Warm garlic bread is especially inviting when the edges are crisp and the middle still gives under your fingers. Fresh garlic and parsley run through the buttery top. Cut it into small sections while hot and enjoy a piece with that golden edge attached.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Original yield
- Serves 12
- Ingredients
- 7 listed
Make it part of your week
Recipe categories & planning details
- Meal type
- Dinner · Sides
- Cuisine
- American
- Cooking method
- Baking · Baked & roasted
- Preparation & total time
- Prep: 15 minutes or less · Total: 30 minutes or less
- Dish type
- Breads
A few quick notes
1. Soften the butter first
Start with room-temperature butter so it stirs into the oil, garlic and parsley, making a spread with only a few small lumps.
2. Spread the open faces
Split the loaf into shorter pieces, open each lengthwise and spread the garlic mixture evenly over the cut surfaces before baking.
3. Choose your crispness
Bake less for softer garlic bread or longer for crispier pieces, watching for golden edges within the baking range.
Get to know the ingredients
Soft French or Italian bread
Choose a large, soft loaf that absorbs garlic butter well. A baguette can become very hard.
Fresh and powdered garlic
Both garlic forms go into the spread: minced cloves for a direct garlic flavor and powder for a deeper background flavor.
Olive oil
Mix olive oil into the butter to make it easier to spread and help slow browning while the bread bakes.
Let’s make it
Choose your servings, then check things off as you go.
Original recipe: Serves 12. Original quantities shown.
Check ingredients as you prepare them. These checks stay on this page.
How to make it
0 of 3 steps completeMake room for Homemade Garlic Bread
Review ingredients in your pantry before anything is added. Meal plans use your household size; grocery-only additions use the servings selected above.
The last little job
Cut and serve hot
Once the edges are golden and crisp, cut the bread into two-inch sections and serve while the garlic butter is warm.
A little more help as you go
Freeze after spreading
You can freeze the garlic-buttered bread in gallon freezer bags before baking, ready to bake directly from frozen later.
Parsley in the spread
Chop the fresh parsley before stirring it into the butter mixture, spreading it across the bread with the garlic before baking.
A few questions you might have
Can I use unsalted butter?
You can use unsalted butter, with extra salt added to the garlic-butter mixture so the bread is properly seasoned.
Should frozen garlic bread thaw first?
It can bake straight from the freezer, allowing a minute or two more for the edges to brown.
Does the butter mixture need to be perfectly smooth?
A few small butter lumps are fine. Stir the room-temperature butter with oil and seasonings until relatively smooth before spreading.
Which side faces upward on the baking sheet?
Lay the cut sides up so their garlic-butter coating is exposed while the bread edges turn golden in the oven.
Do I slice individual pieces before baking?
The directions bake the four opened bread pieces first, then cut them into smaller two-inch sections for serving hot.
Any more cooking tips?
The best bread is a large soft loaf of French bread or Italian bread. It soaks up the garlic butter well without getting too tough or crispy as it bakes. Baguettes tend to get really hard and don’t soak up the butter as readily as a slightly softer loaf. ** Salted butter is the vehicle for all that garlicky flavor and makes the bread extra rich and delicious. You can use unsalted butter if you have it, but you’ll need to add extra salt to the garlic butter mixture to make sure all the flavors pop. *** A little bit of olive oil helps make the butter more spreadable AND helps keep the butter from browning quite as fast while it bakes. **** Fresh garlic helps keep the garlic flavor front and center with a nice punchy finish. A little bit of garlic powder in addition to the fresh garlic adds a really deep garlicky base note, so you’re getting a full one-two garlic punch. *****Once the garlic butter is spread over the surface of the bread it can be frozen in gallon-sized freezer bags and baked at a later date. The bread can be baked straight from the freezer, although it may take a minute or two longer to brown.
Storage & reheating safety
For cooked, perishable leftovers, refrigerate within 2 hours (1 hour above 90°F), using shallow containers for prompt cooling. Keep the refrigerator at 40°F or below, use refrigerated leftovers within 3–4 days, and reheat hot leftovers to 165°F, checked with a food thermometer. Follow any shorter package limit.
These are general safety limits, not a tested storage or freezing recommendation for this particular dish. USDA leftovers guidance · Safe cooking temperatures
Recipe source: budgetbytes.com. Ingredient names and quantities may be adapted for the pantry.
Preparation notes follow the recipe shown here.