For Crispy Yet Chewy Garlic Bread, Reach For A French Loaf

Garlic bread is the perfect side dish for an array of pastas, soups, and salads. Or, it works as an appetizer at a dinner party, delicious enough to distract your guests until the main course is ready. With all this in mind, it doesn't hurt to know some tips and tricks to make the best homemade garlic bread — including what bread to use as your base.

While you can technically choose any old bread, for the best garlic bread, you want something that has a crisp exterior but is soft inside so that the finished product will still be nice and chewy — for this, reach for a French loaf. There's really nothing better than buying a fresh French loaf from a bakery, so you may as well put it to good use and make a batch of homemade garlic bread.

If you don't have access to French bread for any reason, ciabatta bread is a great choice as well — it's even the type of bread we use in the Tasting Table recipe for homemade garlic bread — because it has a very similar texture to French bread.

Once you've picked out the right bread, there are a few other tips you can keep in mind to make sure your garlic bread stands out. For one, you may want to consider doubling up on the flavor — the garlic flavor, of course. To do this, you'll use both fresh garlic and garlic powder in order to add an extra flavor layer of garlic — it is the star of the show, after all.

Next, make sure to include some parmesan cheese (if you're a cheese lover). The simplest recipes out there may not call for parmesan, but the addition of cheese truly takes the bread to the next level by contributing some tanginess and nuttiness, making the bread more complexly flavored overall. If you don't have parmesan, you can replace it with another cheese, such as pecorino, comté, or cheddar — or, you can combine two or more of these to really up the ante on the cheesiness.

Finally, this may go without saying, but make sure you use fresh garlic, rather than the canned minced garlic, for your bread. Pre-minced garlic won't have as fresh of a taste because garlic begins to lose its flavor as soon as it is cut or grated. Plus, it contains other ingredients, such as citric acid, to help make it last — so again, it isn't going to be as pure or fresh as the real thing.