Seriously Garlicky Garlic Bread (Pizza Style)

There was a big treat on Saturday. My husband cooked!

He does this, occasionally. He's a very good cook, actually, only he doesn't usually have time.

By the time he gets home from work, we have long-since eaten and gone off for a bath. The meal is fait-accompli.

Alas, his culinary talents remain largely unexploited but, as I was saying, he did cook on Saturday. In fact, he went one step better than that: he prepared the lasagne on Friday and took the children out on Saturday - all morning!

I enjoyed a lovely, pottering sort of Saturday morning, all by myself, and rustled up some garlic bread to have with our lasagne.

If you love seriously garlicky garlic bread, pizza-style, you'll love this recipe.

Warning: I made four huge (like, 30cm in diameter) garlic breads. We were feeding six adults and three children, though, so you might decide to scale back a bit.

Anyway, my recipe was this:

For the dough

500g/17 oz/3⅓ cups strong plain flour
275ml/9 fl oz/1 cup water
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp instant dried yeast
2 tsp salt

For the topping

50g/2 oz/¼ cup butter* (remember this was for four garlic breads)
5 cloves garlic, grated
4 tbsp dried coriander leaf or parsley
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
*Edit: Vegetable oil works well too, instead of the butter.

Method

1. Combine all the dough ingredients in a large bowl. Mix them together with one hand.
2. Turn out the dough onto a clean surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. Or until you lose the will to knead.
3. Cover the dough with the upturned mixing bowl and leave it to ferment for 45 minutes (if you have time - but you can get away without much fermentation if you have to)
4. Divide the dough into four pieces and pre-shape them into rounds
5. Leave the dough to rest for 15 minutes (only if you have time).

Meanwhile, make the topping: Soften the butter in the microwave for a few seconds then stir in the garlic, coriander and lemon juice.

Now, roll out the bases until they are about 1cm thick and place them onto baking trays.

Smear the garlic butter all over the bases, right up to the edges and season with salt (I'd add the pepper after cooking, but that's up to you)

Bake them at 180^oC/360F for about 10 minutes, or until nicely browned (but don't let the garlic burn!)

Try not to eat them all at once and save some room for your main course.