Learn how to make this easy 10-min Cheese Garlic Bread. It serves as a great appetizer and is easy to prep ahead and serve hot in large batches.
Who doesn't like Garlic Bread? Wait, don't answer that. Who doesn't like Garlic Bread with Cheese? Even my in-laws who are generally garlic-dislikers would say yes to Garlic Bread especially if it came with some cheese on top. Now, you can be all fancy and make Cheese Garlic Bread from scratch but that won't get done in 10 mins and you will be left with a bunch of vessels to clean. Don't get me wrong, I am all for making bread from scratch but sometimes what you need is a quick and easy snack or appetizer for guests (or for yourselves!) and this Cheesy Garlic Bread could be just the thing you are looking for.
I made these Cheesy Garlic Bread as an appetizer for a pizza party for 6 people. I made my favourite pizza base recipe in a large batch, picked three different vegetarian pizza topping ideas (more on that later), and was wondering if we would have enough food to munch on while we waited for the pizzas to get done. I was wary of making an appetizer that would tie down my oven but nothing else seemed to go well with pizza except garlic bread!
But I needn't have worried because this Cheese Garlic Bread takes not more than 10 mins and while you roll out your pizza base and get the toppings all layered on, the garlic bread is ready to be served.
10-Min Cheese Garlic Bread Recipe
Preparation time: 4 minutes
Cooking time: 6 minutes
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 baguette (mine was about 1 feet long)
4 tbsp of butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 tsp of salt (if using unsalted butter)
2.5 cups of grated mozarella + cheddar
3 tbsp of chilli flakes
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced (I finally put my garlic press to good use)
How to Make Cheese Garlic Bread:
0. Pre-heat your oven to 300F / 180C.
1. Slice the baguette into 3/4" thick pieces. You can go thicker or thinner as you like, I like it neither here nor there. I am grey (I didn't mean to rhyme, sorry).
2. Mix the minced garlic and butter along with salt if you are using unsalted butter. On that note, I used Amul salted butter and it was delicious, but we all know that already. Slather a good layer of butter on one side of the bread pieces evenly.
3. Add the grated cheese on top and garnish with chilli flakes. You can be as generous as you want but don't even think about being skimpy. Skimpy and cheese don't go well together. Since I was serving pizza next, I went a bit easy on the cheese for the garlic bread, but note how I didn't just make plain garlic bread, I had to add some cheese!
4. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 5-6 mins until the edges of the bread slices turn crisp and the cheese melts. Don't let it sit in there too much even thought you are tempted because if you over-bake them, they turn out like rusk when slightly cool.
You can use a baking tray but I didn't have any spares since I was using them for the pizza so I directly put them on the (clean!) oven racks.
And we are done! Hot, spicy, cheesy garlic bread is ready in 10 mins! Let your friends enjoy these with ketchup and more chilli flakes while you make the pizza and wow them further. Lots and loves of cheese for the win!
Notes:
- Please in the love of all things edible, use fresh garlic for garlic bread. No substitutes, no compromises.
- Mincing garlic for garlic bread is way easier with a garlic press (this is what I have), but it's really not a useful tool for anything else so you don't really need one. That didn't stop me though.
- Serve garlic bread hot. Make them after your guests are in your living room. You can do all the prep work and keep it ready to bake. It takes only 5 mins so they won't miss you, don't worry.
- The chilli flakes are optional but definitely recommended. I save the extra chilli flakes sachets when we order pizza and use that for when I make garlic bread or pizza at home. You can also add some herbs to the garlic-butter mixture. Try oregano, parsley, basil, anything you have in hand (thanks for the tip Archana!)
- You can definitely use regular bread to make garlic bread. The texture will be different but it will still work.
- No, I haven't tried to make garlic bread in a microwave but I do feel they will crisp up too much because the MW has this way of sapping all water out of whatever you put in it. It could work though, try it and let me know?
- You can make plain garlic bread by omitting the cheese but that would make me say "Whaaaat?? Why?" in a very loud voice.
Tags:
easy appetizers easy garlic bread easy snacks garlic bread garlic cheese bread quick snacks
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