Perfect Garlic Bread

Hubby cannot get enough garlic bread.... my garlic bread that is. He would devour it for breakfast, lunch AND dinner if I would let him. But, I do not. I think the secret to really good garlic bread is to use fresh roasted garlic, real butter and parsley. That's it. Three simple ingredients that creates mouth watering bread for everyone.

If you have never roasted a head of garlic before, you are in for a treat! I am going to share my simple recipe and you will have perfectly roasted garlic every time.

If you have a terra-cotta garlic roaster like I do, you want to take the dome portion and soak it in cold water while you are prepping your garlic. It helps the garlic stay moist while it is roasting.

Next, take a head of garlic and peel the skin off so that you only have one layer surrounding each clove. Then, cut the tips off each clove and set them on the roaster. Drizzle some olive oil on them so each clove is covered. So you now have each clove opened up with just enough skin on it to hold the olive oil. Sprinkle with parsley and bake in a garlic roaster. There are many roasters on the market but I found my cute little terra-cotta roaster at a thrift store for less then $5.00. I love thrift store treasure hunting.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (1 medium head of garlic) to an hour (1 large head, or 2 medium heads). I almost always roast two heads at a time since we use lots of garlic.

Once the heads are cooled a bit, squeeze 2-3 cloves of garlic out of their skins and mash them with the back side of a spoon. Add melted butter and parsley and mix well. Take your french bread and and cut them into portions. With just Hubby and I, an entire loaf of store bought fresh baked bread will last 4 meals (1 serving for each of us per meal.) I think a good ratio is 1 Tablespoon butter and 1 big clove of garlic per serving. So, if you're baking the entire loaf, that would translate to 8 servings for Hubby and myself but you may slice your servings smaller. It's up to you.

As you can see, I slice each serving in half, but not cutting all the way through. This makes it easier to pull apart rather then ripping them apart. Bake for 10 minutes at 350, then turn on the broiler to high and broil them for 2 minutes max. Broiling is fast so be sure to keep a close eye on your bread. This process will heat the bread through and also give you a nice golden bubbly top.

Look at how delicious that is! But, ignore the chip in my plate... we are sometimes hard on dishes. Using the roasted garlic rather then a garlic paste or fresh chopped garlic gives it an amazing flavor without being too strong. It's subtle, but you can still taste the garlicky goodness. Sometimes I also sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top, however I do not think that is absolutely necessary.