Hot, crusty bread is drenched in melted butter, crushed garlic, flavorful herbs and then smothered in cheese. Serve it as an easy appetizer or side dish! No matter how you serve it up nobody can resist pulling off piece after cheesy piece!
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time19 minutesmins
Total Time29 minutesmins
Course: Bread / Breakfast / Brunch / Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 10
Author: Mirlandra
Ingredients
1loaf of French breadany kind but firmer loaves hold up better (use cooked bread, not dough)
½cupsalted buttermelted
2tsp.minced garlic
1Tbsp.Italian Herb Blendfreeze dried such as Litehouse is preferable
1cupshredded mozzarella or other favorite cheese that melts well
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Use a serrated bread knife to cut the bread on a diagonal into 1” sections being careful to not cut through the bread. This means cut diagonally across the loaf from one end to the other and then come back making diagonal cuts the other direction. As long as the bread ends up cut into sections that go almost to the bottom crust it should work. You do need to end up with a diamond pattern from the end of the loaf and not a square pattern.
Place the loaf of bread on a large piece of foil. Combine melted butter, garlic, salt and herbs.
Use one hand to gently separate the chunks of bread and drizzle the herb butter into the cracks with a spoon. The butter can be drizzled over the top and down into the cracks – It won’t look messy after you bake it. The goal is just to get the butter distributed through all the cracks of the bread.
Tuck the cheese down into all the tops of the cracks (pushing it in too far causes the bread pieces to fan open more).
Wrap the bread in the foil and bake for about 15 minutes until the cheese is melted. Unwrap and bake for another 5 minutes to crisp everything up.