2 Ways to Make Stovetop Garlic Bread

One of the easiest ways to spruce up that "darn Dutch Oven Bread that's all over Pinterest" is simply to turn it into garlic bread. There are about 40 ways to do this. Really. You can use a grill, your broiler, a toaster, a frying pan, or, if you live in Colombia you can just slap on the garlic butter and hold your bread under the sun for a few minutes. (This works for all countries along the Equator.) You can use fresh minced garlic, roasted garlic, or go super easy with garlic salt.

For the sake of my readership, I'm only going to show you two of the ways I like to make garlic bread, both using fresh garlic and both on the stovetop.

Heated up some lentil soup, added some baked ham that we needed to use up, and made some garlic bread. A warm and hearty lunch in about 10 minutes!

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Simple Stovetop Garlic Bread

(with roasted garlic variation)

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
4 slices of Perfect Artisan Bread, sliced 1-1.5" thick

salted butter, softened to room temperature

high quality olive oil

2-3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

a light sprinkling of kosher salt (optional)

Directions

Warm a large frying pan over medium-medium-low heat. In the meantime, spread your desired amount of butter on each side of each slice of bread. Now lightly drizzle each side of each slice of bread with olive oil (but don't go crazy! You don't want your bread to be saturated when you bite into it!) Spread equal amounts of minced garlic over one side of each slice of bread, and top with a very light sprinkling of kosher salt if desired.

Once your pan is properly preheated, place your bread in the pan, garlic side up and fry until the bottom is golden brown. Remove bread momentarily and add a small amount of extra butter to the pan (to keep garlic from sticking.) Carefully turn over each slice to fry the other side. Some of the garlic will want to hug the pan rather than the bread. That's okay. When that side is golden brown, just scoop the rogue garlic up with a spatula and help it back onto the bread.
This version has a strong garlic flavor. For a softer flavor and texture, try the Roasted Garlic Version.

Roasted Garlic Variation

I actually like this version a little better than the main version, but it takes just a little extra time and preparation. First, roast 1 garlic bulb per these instructions from Jane Maynard of This Week for Dinner. (Takes 30 minutes, but the oven does all the work.) Then I follow the instructions above, but I leave off the garlic entirely. Once the bread has been fried to perfection, I simply spread the individual cloves of roasted garlic on top. This flavor is softer, less potent than the main recipe's version. This is the kind you want to make if you're planning a post-meal make-out with your dinner partner.

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