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…..
Love your garlic bread which I’m serving it with your Spag Bol. Perfection!
Loved this recipe. I have not been able to make garlic bread very well before, but this was the recipe that changed my life. It was eaten up very quickly. Thanks so much.
I’ve made this garlic bread a couple of times – everyone loves it!
Hey Nagi, this is great for dunking in minestrone soup on a cold night.
Tip: I keep a batch of garlic and thyme butter in the fridge for those cosy soup and pizza nights 😉 Luv to Dozer
What a great idea. Hate throwing out all the extra buns. Thanks for sharing. Definitely doing this in the future
This was a reply to Toby’s post. Didn’t work 😪
I think this is the best garlic bread I’ve ever had! The family devoured it and wanted more.
OMG! This was the most delicious garlic bread that I have ever had! Thank you for such a divinely decadent recipe!
Absolutely delicious garlic bread. Made it yesterday to go with a leek and blue cheese risotto 😋
However, one thing I don’t get is garlic bread with pizza ! Why ? It’s just MORE bread. A side salad with pizza and garlic bread with a bowl of pasta or risotto, surely….. 😄
This was so delicious being homemade. Thank you Nagi
Hi Nagi – Can I use an oven part-baked baguette? Thx
Yum yum thanks Nagi! I have tried cutting the loaf all the way through, it is much easier to take each piece from the foil.
This was super useful, and even tastes the best!
I made this. Yum. Kids luved it. Served hot with scrambled eggs for breggy.
Used dried oregano instead of parsley.
Cooked at 200c for 15min, then opened up the foil and cooked the sliced bread rolls at 240c for 5min to get that nice golden with slight crisp crust but still soft filling.
Thankyou Nagi x
I made this garlic bread tonight using one of my homemade torpedo rolls. It was a wonderful accompaniment to our lamb casserole. We ate the lot, mopping up the gravy with the bread.
I had no idea what a torpedo roll is.
Forgot the stars. Oops! I also make this with Nuttelex to keep in the freezer for dairy allergy friends. Still delicious. Have used Buttery flavour but today I am going to try the new one they have just brought out for baking.
This is the best garlic butter. I make double as that uses up a bunch of parsley (I put in heaps!). I then spread it on sliced pane de casa or ciabatta, freeze on trays and then put back in the bread bag in the freezer. Such an easy snack or side. Take out as many slices as you want. 5 minutes in air fryer on 200 Celsius. I also love it slathered on Nagi’s still warm Artisan bread with no toasting. Rest of family toasts it in air fryer. Fantastic side to the Greek Chicken Risoni. So easy and delicious.
When I have left over hot dog buns (usually at work sausage sizzle) I make garlic breads, wrap in alfoil and freeze. Straight from freezer to air fryer, 5 minutes at 180, ready and perfect size for 2-3 people. I also use a little dried oregano instead of parsley.
What a great idea. Hate throwing out all the extra buns. Thanks for sharing. Definitely doing this in the future
I’ll be honest I’ve never ate domino’s garlic bread so I can’t comment on if this recipe is better than domino’s or not. However, this is so much better than the packaged stuff you buy at the grocery store & so quick & easy to make. I made this recipe exactly as written with baguette from woolies. We will never go back to the store bought garlic breads. Make this recipe it tastes sooooo much better.
I used to use garlic butter from supermarket and I realised there are many conservatives in it. Now it is possible to eat more healthy and even more delicious garlic bread with this amazing recipe ! Saltiness was perfect 🙂 Thank you Nagi !! From Belgium
I hope the Republican party doesn’t get wind of this
😂😂😂
Amazing comment. I died. But also… Reason I was looking at the comments… Made this tonight and 🤤. If you’ve ever had dreams about garlic bread (you know who you are). Make. This.
But how do you make the soft garlic bread that dominos makes? My kid doesn’t like the crunchy one. I can’t work out how to make it soft 🤷♀️ even leaving it encased in the foil it still comes out crunchy.
Maybe wrap in cling wrap, microwave to heat the garlic through, 1-2min max, and then a few minutes in the oven to firm it up a bit