Enjoy fresh garlic bread any night or day when you have a stash of this Easy Make-Ahead Garlic Bread in the freezer. So good and easy!
It is a humble dish. It doesn’t get much attention. Sometimes it’s an afterthought at the checkstand, when one passes the baskets of foil wrapped logs waiting to be taken home and served up alongside a quick bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.
I’m not sure that anyone waxes eloquent over its virtues. In fact, it’s sometimes forgotten all together as a culinary option.
But you know what? Garlic bread is awesome! And it deserves a little more attention. For all its simplicity, it’s the first thing to go when I serve an Italian buffet. My kids use garlic bread as a bartering commodity. Yes, indeed, they recognize its value.
For all its humble, wallflower status, Garlic Bread is truly the star. And you’re doing it a disservice if you buy the aforementioned foil-wrapped logs waiting for you at the grocery store checkstand.
Why?
Because it’s better and easier and BETTER to make your own. That’s why.
Garlic bread is simple and easy to make, but often times at the end of the day, maybe you don’t want to make spaghetti AND meatballs AND a salad AND garlic bread. And so, garlic bread in all its glory is forgotten.
May it no longer be so!
This easy, make-ahead Garlic Bread will have your dinner bread basket buttoned up. Especially if you stash a few loaves in the freezer. Having homemade garlic bread in the freezer feels like a luxury, but its really not. It’s so cheap and easy to make!
Make a few loaves this week, squirrel them away in the freezer, and pull them out when you want to bring an everyday dinner to new heights.
Tips and Tools
- Buy day-old bread on clearance to maximize your savings on this recipe. Bread that’s on the dry side is perfect for this!
- The holiday season is a great time to stock up on butter! You’ll get the best prices, and you can freeze the butter until you’re ready to use it.
- If you don’t already have one, invest in a quality bread knife. I love this one from ErgoChef.
- 1 large loaf Italian or French bread sliced in half horizontally
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley or 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- Lay out the two halves of the bread loaf onto a large piece of aluminum foil.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the butter, garlic, and parsley. Spread the garlic butter in a thick layer over each cut side of bread.
- Put the two halves back together and wrap with foil. At this point you can store it in the freezer for later use. I thaw mine overnight in the fridge before baking.
- Bake, thawed, 25 minutes at 375 °. If frozen, add 10-15 minutes to your baking time. Right before serving, you can unwrap the foil and broil the bread briefly to crisp the top.
- Buy day-old bread on clearance to maximize your savings on this recipe. Bread that's on the dry side is perfect for this!
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Originally published May 12, 2010. Updated November 19, 2016.
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The garlic bread looks awesome, my middle child especially loves, loves, loves garlic bread! Thanks!
I bet my “men” in the house would love that bread! Thanks for sharing!
~Liz
Hellooooooooo beautiful! Isn’t there something so comforting about a nicely buttered, browned, and perfectly garlicky bread fresh out of the oven at dinner? Me thinks I’ll make some baguette tomorrow just so I can have garlic bread at dinner for Hub’s birthday dinner.
And my first thought after hello beautiful was, Butter? Yes, please! Ree and Paula (Deen) have NOTHING on my butter obsession. I used to eat the stuff plain growing up (and no, no obesity issues here – I was a scrawny little twerp! Still skinny to this day, but that’s thanks to nursing a baby!)
I have so many favorites…butter…yum. Not sure which one to choose!!!
Mmmmm, butter. It’s what makes the topping on the Rhubarb Almond Flake I entered this week super special.
This is genius! I can’t believe I never thought to do this on my own, but I’ll be doing it from now on!
And think about how expensive it for those foil wrapped bags at the grocery store. This is soooo much better — in taste and in nutrition. And so easy!
BTW, you made my day with the “genius” comment. 😉
Thanks so much for an inspiring blog that I have only recently found!!
Going try the garlic bread this weekend and I’ll let you know how we get on with it! (Should be good as we are garlic lovers in this house)
I’ll make a few extra batches and freeze too.
Thanks from Bonnie Scotland
The (Not So) Organised Mum
Great! Now, I am in the mood for Italian:-)
My kids don’t handle change well. Since they love the frozen Texas Toast garlic bread, I would most likely slice a loaf of bread in 1-inch slices, being careful not to cut all the way through at the bottom. Then spread the butter mixture on each side of the slices. It might take a bit more time t0 spread the butter on each slice, but if it eliminates the round of “I don’t like this, its different” I’ll take it!
That’s exactly what you should do! Make it work for your family. Great idea!
LOVE recipes swaps!!!! And (unfortunately) I LOVE using butter when baking and cooking! 🙂
I love making compound butters and always have a few varieties in the freezer to top off beef, seafood, vegetbales, or to make a qgarlic bread.
Did you mean that you “thawed mine overnight in the refrigerator…”? (your wrote that you thawed it in the freezer). Anyway, it looks delicious. I love making garlic bread ahead of time – it makes dinnertime a snap!
I love homemade garlic bread. Try adding some fresh (not powdered or out of a can) parmesan cheese to this. You won’t be able to make enough! I make 2 loaves each time and they both disappear.
This is awesome, thanks! I’ve been meaning to experiment with this, so I’m so happy to see you tried it.
Genius is right! I always have ‘marked to sell’ loaves in my freezer and encourage my hubby so make the garlic bread when we are going to have it for dinner. It would be SO MUCH EASIER to con, I mean ask, my hubby to whip up his butter/garlic/seasoning concoction after I buy a few loaves that way I can bake them off whenever I want to serve them and not worry about needing his help. Would love to hear what results are found when cooking from freezer straight to oven!
All of these look great. Butter is the best!
Just curious – did you make the french bread yourself or did you buy it? If you made it I’d love to have the recipe! I was thinking of doing this but don’t have a great recipe and the french bread at my stores are pretty overpriced!
I bought that bread at Costco. The very large loaves were about $2 each, pricey, but I’ve been looking for clearance substitutes at Ralphs which usually has artisan bread marked down.
Walmart usually have nice large loves in their clearance deli section for .50!!!!! I havn’t paid full price in years. 🙂 I usually grab as many loaves there are avaiable or what my budget can afford that week. They come in handy for all kinds of things french bread pizza, garlic bread, open face sandwiches, etc………… This would be yummy with soup
You must have a great Walmart. Ours is usually slim pickings.
we do…………its only like 6 years old & the selection on most everything is really good. Occansionally they don’t have any bread but most of the time they do 🙂
@jamie, I have an excellent french bread recipe. It can be made into rolls, as the recipe describes, but works well for loaves, too. I use it for so many applications!
http://feedingthecrew.blogspot.com/2009/10/french-bread-rolls.html
Colonial bread has a store near me that I can buy “day old” bread, that is still very much in date. They just rotate it out of the stores quickly so the stores have fresher bread. I bought Wheat Sub buns for my Chicken Bacon Subs, and probably will go back in a day or 2 for some more to make mini garlic loaves. I can get a 6 pack for $1. And 1 6pack will feed my family of 5, 3 times if I use it only as garlic bread. 🙂
Thanks for posting this. I make garlic french bread all the time, but never thought to freeze it ahead of time. Is the texture similar after it’s been frozen, compared to making it fresh?
I don’t notice a difference, esp if it’s better quality bread. Made on hot dog buns, it’s gonna lose something. 😉
I absolutely love this idea!! I buy the loaves of french bread when they go on sale & freeze them. Then when I thaw them I have to mix up the things to make it. This is perfect!! Thank you for sharing this great idea!! 😉 My kids & I love buttered garlic bread…..it is my weakness!!! <3
Yep. It feels so luxurious to pull out a loaf of garlic bread from the freezer and not have to do anything but bake it or throw it on the grill.
Hi Jessica! The garlic bread looks good! May I know if the oven has to be preheated first before throwing it into the oven? I asked because I plan to throw it in the oven when I am baking my casserole. The oven would have been preheated then. So the time to bake in the oven is 25 min still?
You should be good to go!