Homemade Italian Bread & Garlic Bread

It’s hard to beat a fresh loaf of Homemade Italian Bread. Especially when that same loaf is then used to make garlic bread!

Jump to recipe

Did anyone happen to watch the OSU-Michigan and Alabama-Auburn games this weekend? Talk about intense! Rivalry games are always exciting but those two games kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Not only did we just barely hold off Michigan to win in the last minute, but Auburn took over Alabama with only 1 second!

So guess who’s ranked #2 in the country now!? I’ll give you a hint – I am currently investigating tickets for the National Championship Game. Eeee!!! I am trying not to get ahead of myself as we still have to tackle Michigan State for the Conference Championship this weekend. (Update: We lost both to MSU and then Clemson in the Orange Bowl – alas.)

Lately I’m a human bread machine. Outside of the normal occurrence of pizza dough, in the past few weeks I’ve made gluten-free corn bread muffins, peanut butter cinnamon rolls, Greek yogurt-rosemary rolls, and cranberry-walnut oat bread. Somehow I have yet to make Homemade Wheat Bread from scratch which is shocking since that is the most frequent type of break I eat. But I digress.

Continuing this trend I made a loaf of Italian bread and even braided it so it looked fancy, then took it a step further and made garlic bread out of it. With a little bit of pesto mixed into the garlic mixture, it was as good as it gets. I failed to take a picture of the finished masterpiece, but trust you know what garlic bread looks like!

Post updated 4/20/22, photo above is the original.

One year ago: White Chocolate Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

Two years ago: Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Three years ago: Homemade Applesauce

HOMEMADE ITALIAN BREAD & GARLIC BREAD

Print

Yield: 16 Servings Prep Time: 20 Hours Cooking Time: 45 Minutes 45 Minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

OVERNIGHT STARTER

• 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1/8 tsp active dry yeast

DOUGH

• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup water
• 2-3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 tsp salt

TOPPING

• 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tbsp water
• Sesame seeds

GARLIC BREAD

• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tsp pesto
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 loaf Italian bread, cut in half horizontally

Directions

1. For the Italian bread: Mix the starter ingredients in a small bowl, cover, and let rest at room temperature overnight.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the starter and the remainder of the dough ingredients, stirring with the blade until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise for 90 minutes, turning it over and gently deflating it after 45 minutes.
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface. Roll into a thick 18-inch long rope, flatten slightly and cut lengthwise into three pieces, leaving the last inch at the top uncut. Braid the ropes, tuck the ends under, set the braid on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover, and let rise it rise for about 60-90 minutes, or till it's very puffy.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
5. Brush the braid with the egg white mixture, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool it on a wire rack.
6. To make the garlic bread: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. In a small microwave-safe bowl, add the olive oil, garlic and pesto. Microwave for 15-30 seconds. Spread olive oil mixture on the cut side of the top layer of bread and the butter on the bottom layer of bread. Sandwich the two pieces back together.
8. Wrap loaf in foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove foil, slice and serve.

Source: Italian Bread adapted slightly from King Arthur Flour. Garlic bread The Spiffy Cookie original.

Did you make this recipe? I want to see! Tag @THESPIFFYCOOKIE on Instagram and hashtag it #THESPIFFYCOOKIE