- It's actually a really good garlic bread.
Garlic bread is my favorite food.
I could honestly eat it for every meal
or just eat it all the time without even stopping. (laughs)
- You'd get fat.
No. Why would I get fat?
- Bread make you fat.
- Bread makes you fat?
- [Narrator] Hey, what's up guys.
Welcome back to Binging with Babish.
For this week we're taking a look at the garlic bread
from Scott Pilgrim vs the world,
a concept which like last week, I know is a bit of a reach,
but I made a lot of pizza for this Thursday's basics.
So I needed appropriate accompaniments.
To start, we're using this frozen garlic bread
as a sort of control group.
This is what I grew up eating
on spaghetti and meatballs nights.
So once prepared, according to package directions,
it seems like a good place to start,
and right away, there's a few obvious ways
in which we can improve.
First off, there's no fresh garlic and perhaps,
just as concerning, in place of real butter,
there's margarine.
That being said, it's still toasted bread
with garlic and butter flavor.
So it tastes really good.
Or perhaps that's just my nostalgia talking.
Either way, we've still got plenty of room for improvement
starting with fresh bread.
The obvious direction to go is with your standard,
supermarket Italian loaf.
I personally like sesame seeds
for their added texture and flavor.
And once our loaf is vivisected,
it's time to slather it in compound butter.
That is one stick of lightly softened unsalted butter
into which we're going to crush three garlic cloves.
Basically the more you break down your garlic,
the more garlic flavor you're gonna get,
which is why I opt for the garlic press.
Next up, some freshly minced herbs,
about two tablespoons each.
Finally, chopped basil and parsley,
bringing a lot of much needed dimension to our garlic bread.
We are then generously kosher salting
and freshly ground peppering and mashing
into a cohesive paste.
Otherwise known as compound butter,
which I personally think you should have
in the fridge at all times, right next to the ketchup
and your leftover taco bell sauce packets.
The next step is of course, to generously
and evenly slather it on top of our bread.
From there, you've got two options.
For baking, you could either sandwich it,
and wrap it in foil, baking it 350 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 20 minutes, which is gonna give you
a crisp exterior and soft interior,
but it's gonna leave the garlic kind of uncooked.
I personally prefer to bake open faced
at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for seven to eight minutes
until the bread is crisp and the little chunks of garlic
are just starting to turn lightly blonde around the edges.
And there you have it, some easy, homemade garlic,
buttery, herby, crispy, soft carbohydrate bombs,
perfect for serving with pizza or pasta or any other food
that's just bread in a different shape.
How can we possibly improve
upon this seemingly perfect side dish?
Well America's Test Kitchen has a rather innovative way
to both max out garlic flavor and evenly toast the bread.
They start by microplaning their garlic
into four tablespoons of melted butter.
This ruptures more cell walls,
which creates more garlic flavor,
which they then microwave for 30 seconds
to mellow it back out.
Then to bring some of the long roasted garlic flavors,
they combine one teaspoon each, garlic powder and water,
which apparently activates the garlic flavor
in the garlic powder.
Add the microwaved butter and fresh garlic mixture,
along with one teaspoon salt,
quarter teaspoon cayenne pepper,
and four more tablespoons of refrigerator cold butter,
which is going to sort of rethicken this butter mixture
into a spreadable paste.
A simple finger dip confirms that it is delicious
and extraordinarily garlicky.
This is getting spread on top our halved Italian loaves
by sort of placing a channel of it
down the center of the loaf and then using
an offset spatula to spread evenly and prolifically,
before placing on a rim baking sheet
and baking at 450 degrees Fahrenheit
for about four minutes.
And this is where the real innovation starts.
We are first to flipping our loaves
and then lightly compressing them
with another baking sheet, which we're gonna leave on there
as it returns into the oven for another five to 10 minutes.
This is going to ensure that the cut side of the bread
is exposed evenly to the heat.
Gorgeously toasting both the bread
and the nice pasty garlic.
Now I'm sure you will agree that this is both
a handsome and unique loaf of garlic bread,
sort of like the Dan Levy of garlic bread.
It's unconventional and it's neat and crisp
and I just wanna eat 'em up.
But unlike Dan Levy, I actually found this
to be a little too garlicky
and I think that there's a bread that's gonna respond
better to this pressed toast method,
a bread that positively loves being pressed
and toasted, Pan Cubano.
Into the bowl, the stand mixer
goes 480 grams of bread flour,
one packet or seven grams of instant yeast,
two teaspoons or about eight grams of sugar,
tiny whisk to combine.
And then Pan Cubano's unique claim to fame,
55 grams of melted lard,
along with 300 milliliters of room temp water.
We're gonna add that gradually as the dough comes together,
adding 12 grams of kosher salt,
once it forms a ball of dough
and kneading on medium speed for about 10 minutes
or until a firm, but supple dough forms,
which we're going to pull that off the dough hook,
form into a ball and drop into an oiled bowl
for one and a half hours for its first bulk ferment.
Cover it tightly in plastic wrap and let rest
at room temperature until it's doubled in size.
Once be-doubled, it's time to form it into its final form.
That being a long torpedo shaped loaf
that we're going to coax it into
on a well flour work surface.
Retrieve the dough and turn it out on said work surface,
and begin patting it out
into a large rectangle.
We're aiming for about, I don't know, eight by 12 inches.
And then as is the procedure with most enriched doughs,
we're going to begin rolling it up
from the bottom, pinching as we go.
Pressing as we go to make sure that there are no bubbles
and pinching the seam underneath the result of loaf,
which, oh dear, that looks rather not safe for work there.
We're just gonna pat that out
into more of a torpedo shape
and then we're placing diagonally on a rimmed baking sheet
dusted with corn meal, which is both gonna prevent it
from sticking and add a nice crunchy bottom
to our final loaf.
Then we're gonna cover
with some generously oiled plastic wrap
and let rise at room temperature for another hour
until it's about doubled in size.
Then we are preheating the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
because this guy is ready to get baked.
The only thing left to do is score it
lengthwise across the top.
Apparently this is traditionally done with a palm leaf
but I didn't have one of those handy.
And then we're baking for 20 to 25 minutes
until lightly browned and its thickest point
registers about 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
And we're letting it cool completely about three hours
before slicing and turning into garlic bread.
As you can see, this bread has a nice tight,
but still airy texture, which thanks to the lard,
toasts up beautifully.
I was a little overwhelmed by the microplane garlic,
so I'm headed back to the garlic press,
slicing my bread in half
and trying out two different methods for buttering.
I'm worried about the herbs burning,
so I'm going to slab one half
with the plain old garlic butter,
which I will subsequently sprinkle
with fresh herbs upon completion and with the other,
I am adding my fresh herbs to the butter
before I commence to slathering.
Both are being subjected to the same
450 degree Fahrenheit oven for four minutes
before being flipped and weighted,
which is great, not only because it toasts the bread evenly
but it also prevents the garlic from burning
and turning acrid in the oven.
So no matter how you prep your garlic
and what kind of bread you use,
I cannot recommend this method enough.
About six minutes later and they emerged from the oven
looking just about perfect.
We got our herby loaf from the back,
and in front our plain garlic loaf
that I'm going to sprinkle fresh herbs upon
before slicing and serving.
Now, the first thing we'll cover is the bread.
I love Pan Cubano for garlic bread.
The interior is soft and moist and buttery
and the exterior is crunchy and almost crumbly
in a most unexpected and pleasant way.
Next up the herbs.
The herbs in the compound butter version weren't burnt
but their flavors were definitely dulled
and muted by the heat of the oven.
The fresh herbs version, especially when finished,
with a little bit of flaky Maldon salt
was the clear winner.
Pressing the garlic, rather than microplaning it
made the flavor a lot less harsh and overwhelming.
And the addition of fresh basil and parsley
added some much needed herby contrast.
Now this was the Dan Levy of garlic bread.
Not entirely sure why I'm using him as a metric
for garlic bread.
Maybe 'cause I just can't get enough of 'em.
(upbeat music)