Love cheese stuffed garlic bread but are put off by the countless ingredients added in the ones at your local supermarket (which by the way, don't even include actual butter!? Even the expensive ones!) Yep, me too. Hence why I'm sharing this super simple recipe using the real stuff. Garlic, butter, salt, parsley, cheese and bread. It's such an easy thing to make so why not just have the good stuff!!
To get that beloved stringy melted cheese effect like in the pictures here, you'll want to use mozzarella cheese with another cheese of choice. I like a 50/50 mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses to get a good balance of stretch and flavour. Feel free to use other cheeses such as parmesan, swish or gouda.
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Ingredients
- French stick, aka baguette is the perfect bread to make a good cheese garlic bread. I've always loved how tender soft the garlic breads are on the inside with a crispy exterior from Dominos. I've found the most basic French sticks you can get your hands on from your local bakery or supermarkets are perfect. Not the rustic, crusty style ones. For my Aussie readers, those $1.50 sticks from Coles or Woolies is what you want!
- Fresh parsley adds a nice freshness that compliments the richness of garlic butter and stringy cheeses! I'd stay away from dried parsley. It just won't be the same. If you don't have fresh parsley, you're better off excluding it all together rather than use the dried version here.
- Mozzarella and cheddar cheeses as you can see, I'm using blocks (shred using a grater) as opposed to pre-shredded cheeses. The ready shredded cheeses just don't melt as well due to the added anti-caking agents. If you want that delicious looking stretch each time you tear off a piece of that cheesy garlic bread, make the effort and grate the cheese at home. It literally takes about 30 seconds. Worth every second too. 😉 Plus! block cheeses are cheaper anyway.
This is how you make it
First, mix melted butter with garlic, salt and finely chopped fresh parsley. You can either melt the butter on the stove or in a microwave. If melting in a microwave, just be careful as it can get very hot very quick and start spitting everywhere if unmonitored!
I prefer melting butter on the stove so I can control the heat and see exactly where it's at, at any point.
Now simply slice, cut in half (so that the bread fits into the oven!) and spoon garlic butter generously into each incision!
See how my butter had started solidifying below? It was a cool morning when I filmed this and I did leave it on the bench for a bit whilst getting on with other things. That's completely okay! Instead of drizzling the butter with a spoon, spread instead. Both ways are super easy.
Also note, I only butter one side of the bread. No need to worry as once the bread hits the oven and the cheese and butter start to heat up and melt, it'll spread onto the opposite side.
Get as much cheese in as you can. It's a bit hard to tell in the image above, but with cheese stuffed in, the baguette will start to curl/bench a bit. It'll flatten back once the cheeses have melted in the oven.
Finally, with the excess foil paper on along the sides of the cheese stuffed bread loaves, wrap around the bread, leaving the top exposed. This will help speed up the process of cheese melting and crisp up the outside of the bread.
Bake at 220°/430°F on the middle shelf of the oven for about 12 - 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and starts to blister slightly.
If not serving immediately, cover the top with foil and leave it in the oven (turned off!) until it's time to eat.
The perfect (oh so indulgent) side to a pizza dinner! Of course, cheese garlic bread aren't just for pizza nights, you can have this with pasta as well, such as my speedy and healthy Beef and Lentil Bolognese or a 20 minute Creamy Garlic Prawn Pasta that is on the light side. Balance is key 😉
Buttery, garlicky, heavenly stretchy cheese stuffed garlic bread loaves are what dreams are made of.
As you can see below, by melting the butter, it becomes super easy to just spoon onto the cut sides of the bread. Remember, just one side is sufficient as the butter and cheese will transfer to the other side in the oven. Talk about efficiency!
Fun variations
On a roll? Why not jazz things up and tuck some cured meats into these cheesy garlic bread loaves? Get creative, have some fun and stuff small slices of salami, pepperoni or prosciutto into the loaves. Just be mindful, you can only stuff so much! The gaps are thin.
Or, go the other way and just make the classic, good ol' garlic bread! Skip the cheeses (oh but that stretchy cheese!) and lose the extra calories. But then again, you're having butter-drenched bread. Just enjoy yourself and do what your heart desires.
In moderation, with balance. Like everything in life.
Batch make garlic butter for later
Since it's super simple, why not batch make the garlic butter, freeze and use in everyday cooking! Garlic butter is super versatile. Add it to seafoods such as my Butter Garlic Prawns or just a simple pan-fried fish, make more garlic bread with whatever stale bread you've got lying around or saute with some mushrooms for an easy Sunday brunch at home. I could go on but I think you get the gist.
Freezing
Double the recipe and instead of baking all of it, freeze half for a rainy day! Just make sure to wrap tightly with foil paper. Keeps well in the freezer for up to 4 months. If baking from frozen, add additional 8 to 10 minutes of bake time.
Made this recipe? Let me know your thoughts or questions by dropping a note in the comments section below! I'd love to hear from you 🙂
Happy cooking! - Gen
Video
📖 Recipe
Cheese Garlic Bread (Super Easy!)
Ingredients
- 1 French stick aka baguette (note 1)
- 100 g /3.5oz unsalted butter melted or soft at room temperature
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley minced
- 4 pinches sea salt ~¼ tsp
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella (note 2)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar (note 2)
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 220°C/430°F.
- Slice the french stick, at about 2.5cm/1 inch apart but not all the way through. The slices should remain intact. Cut the french stick into two even halves, forming two shorter loaves.
- Combine melted butter, salt, fresh parsley and garlic. Mix well.
- Place the french sticks onto a sheet of foil paper, ensuring plenty of room along the edges.
- Spoon about ½ teaspoon of garlic butter mixture into cut sides of bread, if you've got some leftovers, just go back and evenly distribute the butter into the incisions. (note 2)
- Combine the shredded cheeses and generously stuff the cheeses into the incisions. About a small pinch of shredded cheese in each incision. The bread loaf will curl slightly, that's okay.
- With the stuffed and buttered french sticks side by side, wrap the edges with excess foil paper. Leave the top exposed.
- Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes until cheese starts to blister and bread crisp golden.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
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