The best cheesy garlic pull apart bread recipe since freshly baked bread. Super easy garlic cheese bread appetizer that is guaranteed to knock your socks off Italian style!
Garlic Pull Apart Cheese Bread: Food Style: Florentina | Photos by: MihaMatei.com
Just in case you might be looking for the ultimate Italian cheesy garlic pull apart bread recipe to indulge with this weekend, mama’s got you covered. I even made us a Video!
As the self proclaimed queen of garlic bruschetta, crostini and pizza, I just could not avoid the subject of a gooey cheesy garlic bread, to pass down to all future generations you know ? 😉
The best bread for this project is a round crusty Italian loaf, whole wheat or sourdough, the crustier the better. Please I beg you: no fluffy wanna be crust sort of bread. If it crackles in your hands when you squeeze it, that is the right bread. No cutting corners on the bread, okay kids?
Let’s talk about that cheese, because that is the glue that holds it all together!
I splurged a couple of dollars on a block of Italian fontina cheese. Because unlike mozzarella, fontina cheese has flavor, lots of creamy soft flavor that will send your taste buds to cloud 9!
However, If you don’t find fontina cheese for some reason here are a few good melting cheese alternatives you can use in this recipe, with fontina being my top choice of course. If you love mozzarella I’d still suggest using a smoked kind, with layers of nice smoky flavors.
The best melting organic cheese for your cheesy garlic pull apart bread:
- Fontina
- Smoked Mozzarella
- Provolone
- Pepper Jack
- Gruyere
- Scamorza
- Taleggio
Very Important: DO NOT melt the butter!
You must use softened butter at room temperature to smear a thin layer on each slice of the bread, otherwise your bread might end up too soggy and not hold together. Trust me, that is not what you want from the best Italian cheesy garlic pull apart bread on the planet right ?!
You’ll notice I added some red pepper flakes for a nice kick. If you are serving this to kids I would suggest you leave them out unless you know they just love a little bit of spice.
Last but not least: Garlic! Adjust the garlic to your taste and tolerance. If you have a sensitive stomach I’d say stick to one small clove, but don’t leave it out of the recipe completely.
After all, you can’t have Cheesy Garlic Pull Apart Bread without the garlic or the cheese!
Cheesy Garlic Pull Apart Bread
Ingredients
- 1 loaf (10 oz) Italian Crusty bread loaf or sourdough round
- 8 oz fontina cheese
- 2.5 tbsp butter salted at room temperature
- 1 clove garlic grated
- 1/4 c Italian parsley roughly chopped
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- a pinch of sea salt
- leaves Parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375”F
- in a small bowl whisk together the soft butter with the grated garlic, red pepper flakes, sea salt and 1/4 c of the chopped parsley.
- Using a bread serrated knife cut 1 inch slices into the bread, making sure NOT to cut all the way through the bottom. It needs to fan out much like an accordion, with the bottom intact.
- Use a butter knife and spread a thin layer of the butter mixture on each slice of the bread.
- Use the serrated knife again and cut across to form 1 inch squares. Very careful again so you DO NOT cut through the bottom of the bread.
- Slice up the cheese into small thin slices, similar size to the square size of the bread. Try and stuff one slice of each in each bread opening. Don’t worry, it is super quick process, less than 3 minutes.
- Place the cheese bread on a baking sheet and cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Bake the garlic cheese bread in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or so. Remove the foil and turn up the heat to 400”F . Bake a few more minutes until the top is nicely golden and crusty with the cheese oozing from the sides.
- Serve straight out of the oven sprinkled with the fresh parsley leaves.
Cheesy Garlic Pull Apart Bread Recipe Video!
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