Has nature got all the answers already but we can’t see the wood from the tree? Let’s make some pull apart garlic bread and see!

It is medicine in small dosage but who has ever tried in big dosage? As nature always strive to balance itself for every illness, there is a cure can be found in its repertoire. Some may be less effective for combating illnesses than others so it needs some help from the human creativity but others, like garlic is quite good enough on its own. Given that we are willing to put up with some smelly breath and sulphury sweat.

Is garlic an official medicine then?

It’s worth to mention that studies suggest that eating too much garlic can damage liver, at least in rats. While this most likely won’t cause any trouble when garlic is consumed normally as not many of us chewing through 10 cloves of garlic daily, it can lead to problems when taken as a food supplement. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16910057/)

Other than that, garlic seems to have potent antibiotic properties and numerous studies conclude positive effects of its consumption. One of the most annoying sickness of the modern era, the common cold can be treated with a couple of cloves of garlic a day. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22280901/) It doesn’t magically clears our body from the illness though but it has the ability to reduce the days of the suffering from 5 to mere 1.5 which is a blessing to anyone with a runny nose.

Unfortunately, or maybe not, we aren’t suffering from cold most of the days so we can’t possibly use that reason to bother with garlic smell our surrounding day in and day out. But if we suffer from hypertension, there is hope to treat it with garlic alone. Studies show the about 4 cloves of garlic a day keeps high blood pressure away (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24035939/) and probably all of our friends and family members too if they aren’t into garlic that much.

What’s in the smell?

During the centuries there is not our civilization the only one that found out about the medicinal properties of garlic, nor we are the only ones who is bothered about its smell. Well, maybe we are more finicky about it than a couple centuries ago when people smelled pretty bad due to the complete lack of personal hygienic requirements so a bit of garlic smell could have been a bit of a refreshment.

None the less, the smell of garlic that is caused by its sulphure content was never as desirable as its medical properties so people of old tried to mask it or reduce it mostly unsuccessfully. Some methods like drinking full fat milk after consuming garlic or mixing garlic with parsley found to be mildly successful and the latter has been widely adapted in many cuisines, partly unconsciously.

How does garlic work best?

The smell comes free but we have to work a bit for garlic’s healthy benefits. Its most important compound isn’t readily floating around in the cloves. Allicin is made when the garlic’s tissue is broken from alliin compound and alliinase enzyme and more importantly they need time to do that.

When we rub garlic onto a slice of bread or chew it slowly into tiny pieces, such reaction occurs naturally but when crushing the garlic and throwing it into the hot pan, the compounds has no time to react with each other and form the crucial allicin.

Luckily, there is an easy way to make that happen without employing any additional ingredient or rituals, we simply have to let the chopped-up garlic sit on the cutting board for about ten minutes before throwing it into the pan. Allicin seems to be pretty heat resistant so we don’t really need to worry about it anymore when cooking or at our present case baking it.

Of course, we can just simply rub a clove of garlic on a toast with some butter on top if we are in a hurry but with a little extra time on our hand and some calorie deficit, why shouldn’t we allow ourselves a bit of fun every now and then? It’s for our good health’s sake after all.

Ingredients

Beginner

1 loaf Bread
4 cloves Garlic
1 tablespoon Parsley
7 tablespoons / 100g Butter
5 oz / 150g Grated cheese (optional)

Advanced

Dough

2½ cup / 300g Flour
4 tablespoons / 60g Butter
1 Egg
½ cup / 120ml Milk
0.4 oz / 10g Fresh yeast

Filling

4 cloves Garlic
1 tablespoon Parsley
7 tablespoons / 100g Butter
5 oz / 150g Grated cheese (optional)

Kitchen utensils

8½” x 3″ / 22cm x 7.5cm Baking form

Overkill

Dough

2½ cup / 300g Flour
4 tablespoons / 60g Butter
1 Egg
½ cup / 120ml Milk
0.4 oz / 10g Fresh yeast

Filling

4 cloves Garlic
1 tablespoon Parsley
7 tablespoons / 100g Butter
5 oz / 150g Grated cheese

Kitchen utensils

Baking form to hold the balls. It doesn’t really matter the size or shape as long as it’s big enough to hold all the balls.

How to make Pull apart garlic bread

Beginner

Add the softened butter, finely chopped or crushed garlic, optional parsley and salt if unsalted butter is used into a bowl and with an electric whisk beat until the butter gets soft and creamy.
Cut the bread into ½” / 1.25cm wide slices but mind not to cut through the bottom crust, otherwise it won’t be much pulling afterwards.
Fill the slices with the creamed garlic butter.
Stuff in optional cheese.
Slice the bread the other way around too so it will make squares or diamonds. If there is some extra cheese left out, just stuff it in anywhere.
Put the bread into a 400°F / 200°C preheated oven for 10 – 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Advanced

Dough

Knead together flour, sliced butter, egg, milk and crumbled yeast.
Cover the bowl and leave it in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place for about 30 – 90 minutes to double or at least rise.

Filling

Cream butter with finely chopped or crushed garlic and parsley.

Assembly

On a floured work surface, roll the dough into a 12 inch / 30cm square. Flouring underneath the dough is important as this coating will prevent it to stick down.
Spread the garlic butter on top of the dough.
If cheese is used, this is the time to sprinkle it on top.
Cut the square into 4 – 5 equal strips. For width check the width of the baking form and go by that.
Put them on top of each other. This may be trickier as it sounds if the dough sticks to the counter. Use a plastic scraper to help getting the dough off the worktop if it’s necessary. The dough is quite soft so try not to pull it much more than necessary.
When they are evenly on top of each other, cut them into about the same width to get some sort of squares.
Fill up the baking tray rather loosely. If it’s packed too tight, the dough will bake together and we won’t be able to tear it.
Cover it with a kitchen cloth then leave it in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place for 30 – 45 minutes to rise.
Pop the tray into the preheated 365°F / 180°C oven for half an hour. In some cases it can be done sooner, in other ovens it would take 40 minutes to be ready. So it is worth to check after 25 minutes. Get a fork or a toothpick and poke the bread if no dough is left on the toothpick, we can turn off the oven and take the bread out. Leave it cool down a bit before serving. Cheesy:

Enjoy!

Overkill

Dough

Knead together flour, sliced butter, egg, milk and crumbled yeast.
Cover the bowl and leave it in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place for about 30 – 90 minutes to double or at least rise.

Filling

Cream butter with finely chopped or crushed garlic and parsley.

Assembly

On a floured work surface roll the dough into a 12 inch / 30cm square. Flouring underneath the dough is important as this coating will prevent it to stick down.
Spread the garlic butter and cheese on top of the dough.
Fold it in half.
Cut the dough up into about 2″ / 5cm size squares.
Fold the corners of the squares into the middle then carefully form balls out of them. We can leave them into squares too, but make sure the sides are sealed off.
Place the balls into a baking form and make sure garlic butter is applied between each layer.
Cover them with a kitchen cloth then leave them in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place for 30 – 45 minutes to rise.
Pop them into the preheated 365°F / 180°C oven for half an hour. In some cases it can be done sooner, in other ovens it would take 40 minutes to be ready. So it is worth to check after 25 minutes.