My sister-in-law wanted to make fresh garlic bread. For me, garlic bread is taking an existing loaf of bread and mixing up a garlic and herb butter, and slapping it on the bread. Then wrap it up in foil, throwing it on the BBQ until it's a little bit crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. But not this time! Crack open the yeast and flour, we're making bread!
After a little creative chatter, I suggested making it a "pull-apart". None of us had done this before but I was fairly confident. The result was great! This says a lot coming from my folks. They usually have many opinions about how to improve something but few compliments. Fortunately, there were more compliments this time around, including going back for 2nds and 3rds.
I recreated this today to go with OG's clam-less chowder. The first pull-apart was vegan friendly, but today's version was not so friendly. I've given both vegan and non-vegan versions below.
Ingredients
7g dried yeast (2 tspn)
1 tspn sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water) [bath water warm]
3 cups plain flour
1/2 tspn salt
4 Tblpsn olive oil (or melted butter)
80g butter, softened (or dairy free margarine)
1 large (or 2 small) cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tblspn oregano (dried or fresh)
1 Tblspn parsley (dried or fresh)
1 Tblspn basil (dried or fresh)
~ 100g mature parmesan, grated
Method
1. In a medium bowl, combine yeast, sugar and warm water (warm milk & water). Stir and set aside to ferment.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine salt and flour. Make a well in the centre. Add yeast mixture and oil (or melted butter). Using the dough hook attachment and cake mixer, mix until combined and forms a dough. Turn out onto a clean and very lightly floured surface. Continue to knead for about 5 to 10 minutes until dough becomes smooth.
3. Place kneaded dough back into mixing bowl. Cover the top of the dough with cling wrap and place bowl in a warm area. Allow to rise to double it's size. About an hour.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Light grease and line the base of a spring form cake tin. (If you don't have a springform cake tin, you can use a regular round one. The Springform makes it easier to turn out later.)
5. In a small bowl combine butter (margarine), garlic, oregano, parsley and basil. Mix until well combined.
6. Turn risen dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead for a little bit to get the smooth texture back, then roll dough out. Try to make it as close to rectangular as possible. It should be about 1cm thick. Spread the butter mixture all over the rolled out dough. (See picture below.) Sprinkle parmesan over dough.
7. Roll dough along the long edge to form a log. Using a knife or clean fishing line, cut cross sections of the log about 3 to 4 cm thick. Turn it upward, place in cake tin close together (see picture below).
8. Bake for 10 to 20 minutes or until golden on top and the sides are coming away from the tin. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes and remove from tin and cool further. Serve warm.
Other flavour optionals:
Spinach and feta (cottage cheese)
Bacon, onion and cheese
Butter and vegemite
Apple and cinnamon
Jam and cream-cheese
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