Amazing Pull Apart Garlic Bread Layered with Garlic Butter & Cheese
This is great fun to bake and really easy. The way the bread is layered produces a great crumb which tears apart to reveal lots of garlicky butter and cheese!
In this recipe I use barley malt extract. You can use honey, molasses, or sugar if you’d prefer. The flavour will change slightly depending on what ingredient you use, although with the garlic being the predominant flavour it would be hard to tell!
If you prefer you can leave out the barley malt extract and not substitute with anything, the recipe will work just fine.
Below you can find my YouTube video which will show you the process from start to finish.
My baking tin measures 10cm x 10cm x 19cm - total capacity of: 1,900 cubic centimetres. The quantity of dough and fillings work perfectly for this tin.
If you are using a tin that’s a different size you can work out the capacity by multiplying the dimensions of your tin.
For example, if your tin is 20% smaller than mine then reduce the ingredients by 20%. I wouldn’t stress about being too exact over this, but it will point you in the right direction.
I am using a 900g (2lb) loaf tin to bake this loaf. This quantity of dough works perfectly for this sized tin.
The tins I use to bake with are non stick and clean easily. They work extremely well for baking bread loaves and desserts like my chocolate babka.
These are the baking tins I like to use.
I use a baking stone placed on the lower third shelf of the oven for this bake. Using a stone helps with transferring heat into the dough quickly. This helps the bread bake before the top colours too much.
To control the amount of colour on the loaf you can place a baking shelf between the top of the loaf, and the element in the top of the oven.
This will shield the top of the bread from the direct heat. It’s a great trick and can be used in many baking applications.
See the video linked below to see how I set my oven up for the bake.
Times & temperatures
My kitchen temperature: 18c / 65f
Oven temperature: 175c / 350f
Oven setting: Bake mode with no fan. Baking stone set on lower third shelf.
Bake time: 40 minutes
Recipe & Method
Ingredients
Dough
412g Strong white bread flour
288g Milk (3.5% fat content)
8g Salt
8g Instant dried yeast
10g Barley malt extract
15g Unsalted butter
Garlic butter
70g Unsalted butter
5-6 Large cloves of grated garlic
200g of grated cheese (I used a blend of low moisture mozzarella and gouda)
Watch the full tutorial here
Garlic butter and cheese
1. Gently melt the butter on a low heat. Add the grated garlic and infuse for 5 minutes on a very low heat. Leave the garlic butter to solidify a little at room temperature but not go completely hard. If the butter sets completely gently warm through before using.
2. Grate the cheese, cover and leave in the fridge until ready to use.
Main Dough
1. Set the 15 grams of butter to one side and mix the remaining ingredients for the main dough in a large bowl.
Work together with a spoon and then use your hand to create a rough dough. It doesn’t need to be smooth at this stage.
Place the 15 grams of butter on the top of the dough, cover and leave to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
If you prefer to activate your yeast then you can add a small quantity of your milk to a bowl along with the yeast. I would suggest warming the milk slightly if it is cold.
2. Turn the dough out onto your work surface and knead until the butter is well incorporated and the dough is smooth.
Shape into a ball, place in your bowl and cover. Leave at room temperature to proof.
My dough took 3 hours to proof at 18c
3. Once proofed you can lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out. Gently push the dough into a rough circle.
Using a rolling pin roll the dough out into a rectangle. Mine measured 50cm x 30cm.
4. Brush the garlic butter over the dough and then sprinkle on the grated cheese.
5. Cut the dough lengthways into 3 strips. Stack each strip on top of each other. Cut the dough into squares / rectangles that fit into your tin.
Lay your tin on its end and place the dough inside. Watch the video to see how this is done.
Cover and proof at room temperature.
6. Once the dough is proofed it can be baked in the oven for 40 minutes. Keep and eye on this loaf. The fat and cheese can cause the top of this loaf to colour quickly.
Check out my oven setup in the video.
7. Once baked remove the loaf from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack. This is definitely best eaten warm!
Pull apart and enjoy!
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