Fast No-Mess How To Make Garlic Bread

Whether you're cooking for large numbers for a special occasion or simply making a regular weeknight dinner for two, garlic bread is an easy and versatile side item. However, unless you know the tricks, spreading home-made garlic butter sauce on a loaf of bread can be downright messy and time consuming. Find out here how to turn this into a fast, easy accomplishment without any mess or fuss!

Step 1. Get your loaf of bread, lay it flat and slice it in half (up and down, not side-to-side).

Step 2. Take one of these halves and then cut slices almost to the bottom crust but don't cut right through it. Make whatever thickness you like.

Step 3. Make garlic butter sauce: in a microwave safe small bowl, melt about 6 T butter, 4 cloves chopped garlic and about 2t dried oregano. Quantities may be adjusted for taste. Garlic powder may be substituted for chopped garlic.

Step 4. Get a long length of aluminium foil and place one of your bread halves and lay it up-ended so that the cut edge is sitting flat on the foil.

Step 5. Using your left hand to support the loaf, 'open' the loaf a little like a book (but not all the way) so that the 'page' closest to the foil is open but lays flat on the foil. (This would be just behind the middle cut made in step 1). Using your right hand, spoon out some of the melted garlic butter onto this flat surface (you can use the back of the spoon to spread it better).

Step 6. Now that you have done that 'page', move upward to the next slice 'opening' the loaf just above that one and making sure it lays flat. Spoon the garlic butter onto that slice. Repeat step 6 for all the slices. Yes, so far you're just doing one side of each slice – the reverse side will come next.

Step 7. Now turn the loaf upside down the other way, so that it's resting on the small rounded end. Open the loaf like a book, spoon garlic butter on, and repeat. This way, you are doing the reverse side.

Finishing up: Make sure you spread the cut edge with the garlic butter on the final pass. Repeat everything for other half of loaf, if desired. Then you'll wrap the garlic bread with the aluminium foil it's sitting on. If you used both halves and wish to make the loaf complete for appearances sake, simply fit the two halves together before wrapping. Bake at 400F (200C) for about 20 minutes.

The beauty of this approach is that it's so fast and easy – you use one hand to manipulate the loaf and the other to spoon on the garlic butter. Because you're only ever spooning onto a flat horizontal surface, you can be assured of smooth, even coverage. No more trying to drizzle garlic butter vertically into small slits!

Another advantage is that if you run out of garlic butter after your first pass, you can simply melt more butter without adding the other ingredients for use on the reverse pass. This time-saving approach works because you've already added all the ingredients to one side of each slice, so no-one will notice if the other side only contains butter!

If you love garlic bread but hate mess, you'll find this fast and easy technique a helpful standby in your kitchen.

© 2010  Giselle Maine