This 15-minute homemade garlic bread is made with just a few simple ingredients: freshly crushed garlic cloves, melted butter, salt, and a fresh baguette. It's an easy baguette garlic bread recipe you will keep coming back to over and over again.
This easy garlic bread recipe is simple, delicious, and the perfect side dish for lentil soup, lasagna dinner, or Italian salad.
What You Will Love
It's a delicious way to jazz up a french baguette or any other type of bread loaf. This homemade garlic bread recipe is perfect for garlic lovers because it's made the old-fashioned way with raw, fresh, crushed garlic!
Ingredient Notes
Fresh french baguette. Make sure to use a fresh loaf of bread. Baguettes dry out easily, so it's best to get them the same day. Use other types of bread: Italian bread, sourdough boule, homemade bread, or a loaf of french bread (country bread).
Fresh mashed garlic: Use fresh raw garlic cloves. Don't use jarred garlic, garlic powder, or garlic granules. The garlic must be mashed into a paste. Minced, chopped, or sliced garlic won't work.
Butter: My favorite butter is salted Kerrygold butter. You can also use extra virgin olive oil as a substitute.
Pinch of salt: I like flaked sea salt, but any salt works. The salt gets mashed into the garlic paste.
See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for quantities.
Overview
It takes 15 minutes to slice the bread, mash the garlic, melt the butter, spread the garlic butter sauce, bake, and enjoy hot!
How To Make Garlic Bread (Step By Step)
Heat the oven to 375 ℉ (190 ℃). Slice baguette with a serrated knife at an angle (about 1" thick). Don't cut all of the way through so the baguette will stay together.
Peel the garlic and remove the top part of the garlic (it's like a stem). Add the garlic cloves and salt to a mortar.
Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic cloves with salt until it forms a paste.
Add butter to a microwave-safe small bowl.
Melt the butter in the microwave for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Mix the mashed garlic and melted butter together.
Spread the garlic butter mixture in between the slices of the french baguette. Try to spread the mixture evenly over the bread face. Spread leftover garlic butter (if any) on top of the bread.
Wrap the baguette in parchment paper. Then wrap the parchment paper with foil.
Place the baguette on a baking sheet or directly on the rack in the middle of a preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 ℉ (190 ℃).
Tips and Tricks
Mash fresh garlic with salt into a paste. The best way to get a garlic paste is to mash it with a mortar and pestle, similar to what you use when making guacamole. This is the most important tip for this recipe to be successful. Minced garlic, chopped garlic, or garlic from a jar are not substitutes!
Wrap the bread in parchment paper then foil. This keeps the bread from drying out while it bakes in the oven.
Variations and Substitutions
Use a garlic press instead of a mortar and pestle to crush the garlic. Be very careful with this because not all garlic presses are the same. Some garlic presses leave chunks of garlic, which is NOT what we want. We need the garlic to form a paste so it's not overly potent and can disburse easily in the melted butter.
Substitute equal parts olive oil for butter.
Add one tablespoon of freshly chopped herbs to the garlic butter sauce. The best fresh herbs are rosemary, thyme, or oregano. Fresh parsley and chives are a great combination as well.
This homemade garlic bread recipe can be made with any type of bread. For soft garlic bread, use a softer bread loaf or even dinner rolls. Slice the roll in half, add the garlic butter, and close.
Equipment
Use a mortar and pestle to crush the fresh garlic cloves into a paste. Wrap the bread in parchment paper and aluminum foil. Bake on a baking sheet or directly on an oven rack.
Storage
Store leftover garlic bread in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 to 2 days.
FAQs
Use freshly crushed garlic for the best garlic bread ever! Mash the garlic cloves with salt using a mortar and pestle until a paste is formed. Mix this mashed garlic with some melted butter. Then spread over the bread and bake.
Some garlic bread recipes have herbs mixed into the butter.
Garlic bread does not need to be refrigerated when it is made with fresh garlic, butter, salt, and bread.
Watch How To Make It
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Homemade Garlic Bread Baguette
Ingredients
- 1 french baguette
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 tablespoons of butter **see note 1
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 375 ℉ (190 ℃).
- Cut the baguette at an angle into 1" slices. Don't cut all of the way through so the baguette will stay together.
- Peel the garlic and remove the top part of the garlic (it's like a stem). Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic cloves with salt until it forms a paste.
- Melt the butter in the microwave.
- Mix the mashed garlic and melted butter together.
- Spread the garlic butter mixture in between the slices of the french baguette. Try to spread the mixture evenly over the bread face.
- Wrap the baguette in parchment paper. Then wrap the parchment paper with foil.
- Place the baguette on a baking sheet or directly on the rack in the middle of the oven.
- Bake for 10 minutes in a 375 ℉ (190 ℃) oven.
Video
Notes
- Substitute olive oil for melted butter.
- Use a fresh baguette for the best results! Any type of bread works: Italian breads, sourdough boules, homemade bread, and even dinner rolls.
- Wrap the baguette in parchment paper and then aluminum foil. This keeps the baguette from drying out!
Sherry
Fast and delicious! Definitely for garlic lovers
Lily
Oh yes, this is definitely the real deal sort of garlic bread. You can adjust the amount of crushed garlic in this recipe depending on your garlic taste buds!