101 Cookbooks = Amazingness and BEST Garlic Bread EVER!

Some of you may have heard of the website 101 Cookbooks. If not, you MUST check it out. It is Heidi Swanson's recipe journal where she posts all her favorite recipes. She cooks with whole, natural foods mostly vegetarian.

Last night Nathan and I had pasta for dinner and I made her recipe for garlic bread and it was amazing, no joke. I know, it's just garlic bread, how amazing can it be? Just trust me, this is incredible stuff. It is garlic bread with a twist of lemon and it is absolute perfection. I never would of thought of it before, but even Nathan said it was the best he'd had and wished we had made even more. So, try it and let me know if brings tears to your eyes, like it did mine.

I altered the recipe slightly by using just whole wheat country bread we had already and used a more healthy plant based margarine instead of butter. I also added a bit of lemon juice to the butter/garlic mixture before spreading it on the bread.

Here is the recipe from her website:

My Dad's Garlic Bread

The size of your baguette will determine how much butter and garlic you'll use. My dad uses roughly one head of garlic for each stick of butter.

1 loaf artisan French bread or wide baguette
1 - 2 heads of garlic
1 - 2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 bunch of chives (optional)
zest of one lemon (optional)

As told to me by my father. Slice that loaf of bread right up the middle so you have two halves (he uses his serrated knife for this). Now set them on their backs, cut side up. Mince the garlic or push it through one of those crushers - either way is fine. Now add it to the butter you should be melting in a small saucepan.

(This is where he got really animated). Now take a basting brush (or any brush for that matter - pastry, etc) and start slathering the garlic butter all across that bread. Really go for it, let it soak in. He then says to me, "heck, sometimes I even pour it on." (At which point I can't help but think that my mom would be mortified). Make sure you get all those garlic chunks evenly distributed. Now sometimes my dad makes a garlic bread in advance and freezes it (don't ask). If you are going to freeze the bread for later, this is when you do it - you don't want to bake, then freeze.

He recommends the 'double-bake' as he calls it. This is when you bake at a standard temperature (350 degrees) for 10 to 15 minutes to heat the bread (particularly if it is coming out of the freezer), and then brown it off for color under the broiler for a minute or two.

When the bread is finished broiling let it cool for a minute or two. This is when I sprinkle with the lemon zest and chives (and to be honest, I sprinkle a bit of zest on the bread before it goes in the oven too because I like that roasted lemon flavor alongside the garlic.) Slice and serve.