Garlic Bread to share

Who doesn’t love bread you can pull apart and share around a fire. Fill it with garlic and herby butter and you have a winner. This buttery homemade garlic bread is so much better than any garlic bread you’ll EVER buy at the store. Doughs enriched with butter, eggs and milk are soft and light in texture. Here I used buttermilk to make this garlic bread. Add instant yeast to give the dough its rise, and time to proof and it’s a magical marriage of flavours. I made it to take to lunch at my brother and sister-in-laws house over Easter. I had to taste test before I went, so I cut out a slice in the middle. I hope they don’t notice. I also had to walk away from the loaf for fear of eating it all up.

Garlic Bread to share

Servings 12

Ingredients

• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 210 ml buttermilk at room temperature
• 350 g bread flour
• 50 g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbls fresh rosemary chopped
• 1 tsp olive oil

Garlic Butter filling

• 80 g unsalted butter
• 80 g cream cheese
• 4 cloves garlic grated
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbls rosemary
• 2 Tbls flat leaf parsley

Instructions

• Put yeast and sugar into stand mixer bowl fitted with paddle attachment (K-beater) pour buttermilk in and mix. Leave to bubble for 5-10 minutes
  1 tsp caster sugar, 2 tsp instant yeast, 210 ml buttermilk at room temperature
• Add in flour, egg, butter, salt, garlic powder and rosemary. Mix for 3 minutes on low speed.
  350 g bread flour, 50 g unsalted butter at room temperature, 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 Tbls fresh rosemary chopped
• Tip dough onto floured surface and knead by hand or about 5-7 minutes OR leave in stand mixer, replace the paddle with a dough hook and knead for 5 minutes until dough is soft and pliable like fat thighs
• Spritz dough with olive oil and proof in warm place for 90 minutes or until double in size.
  1 tsp olive oil
• Prepare the garlic butter filling- add all the ingredients to a small blender attached with a blade and mix together to form a smooth'ish spreadable butter
  80 g unsalted butter, 80 g cream cheese, 4 cloves garlic grated, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 Tbls rosemary, 2 Tbls flat leaf parsley
• prepare a 22cm loaf pan with butter and baking paper
• Divide dough into 12 balls of about 56g each.
• Roll into 12cm discs
• Spread filling equally onto the 12 discs and fold each disc in half creating a half moon shape.
• Place the folded and filled dough into a prepared loaf pan and leave to proof for 45 minutes
• Preheat oven to 180ºC
• Bake for 40-45 minutes -Check after 30 minutes, if browning too much tent with a sheet of foil

Notes

You can make this bread ahead of time and re-heat it in a preheated 175ºC oven for about 15 minutes.